title: Impact of Health Education on The Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Teachers Regarding Reproductive Health of Adolescents of Amritsar, Punjab.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Teachers play an important role in guiding the adolescents. Adolescents are ill equipped to deal with the impending changes in their body which makes them vulnerable to STDs, HIV/AIDS and premarital sex. This study attempts to study the impact of reproductive health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers, about which only a few studies are available.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the impact of health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers regarding reproductive health of adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Senior Secondary schools of Amritsar and Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male teachers of senior secondary schools of Amritsar teaching class 9th-12th.
  
  
  METHODS
  Educational intervention study.
  Purposive sampling.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was started with 155 teachers (teaching class 9th -12th) who willingly participated from 50 senior secondary schools of Amritsar district. It was carried out in three phases. In first phase, after taking informed consent, the teachers filled a pretested questionnaire which was followed by an interactive session on reproductive health in second phase. In third phase, to study the impact of the interactive session and the sustainability of knowledge gained, they were again administered the same questionnaire after a period of 3 months.
  
  
  METHODS
  Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maximum 74 (47.7%) teachers were aware of the psychosocial problems of adolescents. Majority 110 (71%) of the teachers had only partial knowledge about pubertal changes. 117 (75.5%) teachers were unaware about genital hygiene. Only 33 (21.3%) teachers had adequate knowledge about different STDs. 91 (58.7%) and 54 (34.8%) of teachers had adequate knowledge about routes of transmission and prevention of AIDS respectively. Only 37 (23.9%) teachers were imparting sex education to students. After intervention significant favorable changes were seen in their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding most of above mentioned topics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the baseline knowledge of teachers in most aspects of reproductive health of adolescents was found to be low, significant favourable changes were observed after health education.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital , Ludhiana, India .
authors.forename: Pushapindra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaushal
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical Colleg , Amritsar, India .
authors.forename: Tejbir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Ex-Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical Colleg , Amritsar, India .
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Padda
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical Colleg , Amritsar, India .
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Deepti
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital , Ludhiana, India .
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital , Ludhiana, India .
authors.forename: Mahesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satija
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital , Ludhiana, India .
authors.forename: Sarit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Ex-Medical Officer, School Health Programme, NRHM section, Civil Surgeon Office , Ludhiana, India .
authors.lastname: Ankita
keywords: Boys; HIV/AIDS; Puberty