Enhancing adolescent health awareness: impact of online training on medical and community health officers in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study was done to study the knowledge change among Medical Officers (MO) and Community health officers (CHO) regarding menstrual hygiene, early marriages, and HIV/STI with emphasis on adolescents after online training.

Methods: This is a retrospective record-based analysis conducted in the State Adolescent Health Centre, AIIMS Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh in 2023-2024 over 10 months. Participants were selected based on their attendance at online training sessions involving MOs and CHOs on menstrual cups, menstrual hygiene, early marriages, and HIV/STI. The data from Google Forms for pretests and post-tests, containing a total of 30 questions in English and Telugu, covering menstrual hygiene, early marriage, and HIV/STI topics was retrieved. The study covered all 26 districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, with online training sessions conducted via Zoom. The proportion of correct responses to individual questions is given with a 95 % confidence interval. Statistical comparisons of scores of individual questions were done using the McNemar test. Statistical comparisons of total scores of pre-test and post-test were done using the paired t-test. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Of the total 13,432 MOs and CHOs, 9,897 participated in the training with a response rate of 73.6 %. Among those who participated the training 2,809 (28.38 %) completed both pretest and posttest. The majority were CHOs (85.3 %), females, and aged under 35 years. Statistically significant increases in knowledge were observed across various aspects of menstrual hygiene, early marriages, and HIV/STI. Increase in knowledge regarding menstruation 4.3 % (3.5-5.1 %), p-value:<0.001, first vaginal bleeding (first menstruation) 4.7 % (3.9-5.5 %), p-value:<0.001, complication seen in delivering babies in teen pregnancy 4.9 % (4.1-5.7 %), p-value:<0.001, the symptom of STI 7.0 % (6.1-7.9 %), p-value:<0.001, and others. The total pretest mean score was 16.73 ± 4.44 and the post-test mean score was 18.81 ± 4.39. There was a statistically significant difference between pretest and post-test mean scores p value<0.001.

Conclusions: The training program significantly improved knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene, early marriages, and HIV/STI among the participants indicating the effectiveness of educational intervention in addressing gaps towards adolescent Health.