Payesh (Jan 2009)
Puberty health: knowledge, attitude and practice of the adolescent girls in Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Objective(s): Puberty is a critical period of life. Considering the importance of this event and its effects on adolescentschr('39') future and healthy generations, research in this field and its challenges is very necessary and important. Methods: In this study, knowledge, attitude and practice of the adolescent girls in puberty health were assessed in Tehran. For this purpose, 386 students studying in educational districts in five areas of Tehran (North, South, West, East and Center) were randomly selected by clustered sampling. Puberty health data was gathered through knowledge, attitude and performance questionnaires and was statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as analysis of variance. Results: This study showed that the mean age of Menarche was 12.5 years. There was no significant difference between mean ages of menarche in the students of five education districts in Tehran. 45.5% of students believed that puberty is not pleasant and found it troublesome and 36.7% believed that it was a physiologic event. 10.4% of cases were scarred in the first menstrual period and only 17.1% of the students were previously ready for it. The knowledge of 50.3% of students was high. 54.4% had positive attitude about puberty health and the performance of 57% of students was moderate (most frequencies). The correlation between mothers level of literacy and students knowledge and practice regarding puberty health were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Results suggest that considering the totally high (and very high) level of students knowledge(57.5%) as well as totally positive (and very positive) attitude regarding menstrual health (60.9%), the practice was supposed to be better (just 38.9% had correct and very correct practice). Therefore education in the field of puberty health especially menstrual health is necessary to improve knowledge, attitude and practice of the students. Furthermore, since the family is preferred as the main source of education (in 73.4% of cases) as well as consultation (in 76.5% of cases), informing and training the families and especially mothers is recommended.
