Peer training increases the level of knowledge on sexual and reproductive health in adolescents

Abstract

To reach 'youth' and equip them with accurate information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a very important issue. Forty one volunteer students from Mersin University School of Medicine were trained as peer trainers on SRH in Mersin, Turkey. Every peer trainer then trained 100 peers aged between 15 and 20 years about SRH. A total of 3941 students participated and answered a questionnaire consisting of 20 questions about SRH before and after the training sessions. The mean score before the training session was 13.6 ± 3.2 and after the training session was 17.0 ± 2.8. The posttraining test results were found to be significantly higher (p < 0.001). Having previous SRH information from any kind of source also was found to be effective on pretraining test results positively (p = 0.002). As adolescence is the most vulnerable period to sexual health problems, increasing the awareness of sexual health is very important. © The Author [2011]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.