Knowledge and practice regarding contraception and population control among higher secondary school students in Ahmedabad
Background: In India, adolescent pregnancies are very common because of early marriages, lack of knowledge of contraception, and increase in sexual activity among adolescents, together leading to early child bearing in the absence of adequate and effective information and education on planning and...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2015
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/8745/1/P.77-80.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/8745/ |
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| Summary: | Background: In India, adolescent pregnancies are very common because of early marriages, lack of knowledge of
contraception, and increase in sexual activity among adolescents, together leading to early child bearing in the absence of
adequate and effective information and education on planning and spacing children.
Objectives: Comparative measurement of knowledge regarding contraception and population control, and to determine
the need of inclusion of sex education in curriculum.
Materials and Methods: Study was carried out in randomly selected four schools. Two were of central board (private) and
two of state board (government) of Ahmedabad, India. A total of 530 apparently healthy students, 265 from each of the two
school types aged between 14 and 16 years were recruited for the study. A descriptive study, using a pretested, selfadministered
questionnaire, was carried out to assess the knowledge and practice about contraception and population control.
Result: Majority of the subjects, 205 (77.35%) of private and 199 (75.04%) of government school, stated that uncontrolled
population growth has adverse effects. Only 60% private and 52.83% government school students knew the correct legal
age of marriage (p o 0.05). All the respondents were unanimous in their desire for a gap between the first and the second
child, but private school students, significantly more (84.90%) than the government school students (71.69%), preferred
a gap of more than 2 years between the children (p o 0.05). A significantly higher proportion of central board private
school students (90.94%) than state board government school students (72.75%) knew about condoms and contraceptive
pills (p o 0.05).
Conclusion: Students showed mixed performance regarding knowledge and practice of contraception and population
control. There are gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed by including population control and sex education in the
school curriculum. Government school students are far behind regarding knowledge of contraception and population
control as compared to central board private school students. |
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