title: Parents or School Health Trainers, which of them is Appropriate for Menstrual Health Education?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this community-based participatory research was to compare different training sources for adolescents' menstrual health education.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 15 middle schools in Tehran, through quota random sampling, 1823 female students were selected proportionally and allocated randomly to three groups (parent trained, schools' health trainers trained, and control). Following a two-year training program, the adolescents' menstrual health was compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the present study, the school health trainers trained group showed a better feeling for menarche, compared to the two other groups (P < 0.001). The need for adolescent health training was emphasized by 82% of the participants; they also believed that the appropriate age for such empowerment courses was about 12 years. In the school health trainers trained group, the offered age was significantly lower than in other groups (P < 0.001). The adolescents trained by the school health trainers had a better practice of habits related to menstrual and hygiene practices, like having a bath during menstruation and the use of sanitary pads or cotton, compared to their counterpart groups (P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is suggested that school-based health training leads to better menstrual health promotion and healthy puberty transition, and school health trainers play a key role in this regard.
authors.affiliation: Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran ; Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Djalalinia
authors.forename: Fahimeh Ramezani
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Tehrani
authors.forename: Hossein Malek
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Afzali
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hejazi
authors.forename: Niloofar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Peykari