Plain language summary
abortions
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS
Adolescent girls lack adequate knowledge pertaining to sexual and reproductive health, for which they face various issues such as teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections. Hence the authors conducted this study to assess the effectiveness of school-based sexual and reproductive health education among adolescent girls in Odisha state of India in terms of improving knowledge, attitude and practices pertaining to reproductive health. A total of eight vernacular (Odia language) medium schools were selected for the conduct of the study, and the schools were randomly assigned where four schools received SRH education, and the other four received no intervention. A baseline assessment pertaining to SRH was done among adolescent girls studying in ninth and tenth classes of all eight schools, and then education was given to the four schools in the intervention arm. Students were educated on topics such as puberty, menstrual health, pregnancy, contraception and STIs/RTIs with the help of handbooks prepared by the authors. After 3 months of providing education, an endline assessment was done for the adolescent girls in all eight schools. There was an increase in knowledge, attitude and practices pertaining to SRH among the students who received education when compared to those who didn’t. Hence our study recommends policymakers and program managers include SRH education in the regular school curriculum.