EFFECTS OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION AMONG STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ILORIN, NIGERIA

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EFFECTS OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION AMONG STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ILORIN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Globally, as many as twenty to fifty percent of adolescents have initiated sexual activity with age at first sexual intercourse ranging from fourteen to eighteen years, making the need for adolescent contraception obvious. Emergency contraception (EC) is the only form of contraception that can be used after sexual intercourse offering adolescents a second chance to prevent unintended pregnancy, because of sporadic and/or occasional sexual intercourses that adolescents engage in. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of health education intervention on the knowledge and use of emergency contraception among secondary school students. The study and control groups each consisted of students of three schools selected using multi stage sampling technique from two different Local Government Areas (LGAs).
This was a quasi-experimental study carried out in 3 stages: pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention. The intervention stage focused on health education on emergency contraception and was carried out among in-school adolescents in Ilorin, Kwara State. The instrument used was a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from previous studies and using the health belief model construct of perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers to use. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 527 respondents at pre-intervention while analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS Version 21.0 The same respondents at the pre-intervention stage were also at the post-intervention stage. Chi-square test of significance and student’s t-test was used to compare nominal variables and two means respectively. Level of significance was set at p-value of less than 0.05
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Mean knowledge score of EC at pre-intervention was 26.7 + 14.4 and 27.4 + 14.1 in study and control groups respectively. Students’ past usage of EC too was low among both groups (12.8% and 14.6% in study and control group). Health Education Intervention (HEI) led to statistically significant increase in mean knowledge score from 26.7 + 14.4 to 46.7 + 6.2 and increase in usage of EC from 12.8% to 19.7% among the study group. Such increases were not noted among control group (knowledge score from 27.4 + 14.1 to 28.72 + 12.2 and increase in usage of EC from 14.6% to 16.3% was noted among the control group). Among respondents that used EC, HEI led to statistically significant increased usage within correct time frame, from 14.3% to 92.4% post-intervention.
Factors that positively affected usage of EC were gender with more males having EC used among their sexual partners; parental marital status as those with divorced/separated parents used it more; father’s level of education as those whose fathers had up to secondary level of education used it more; and respondents knowledge as those with higher knowledge score had a higher level of EC usage. Key findings from the focus group discussion (FGD) connotes that there are misconceptions about what EC is as some still feel it is used to terminate pregnancies and also there are gross knowledge gap about its side effects and time frame for usage, which is a reflection of findings in the quantitative findings.
It can be concluded from this study that HEI about knowledge and use of EC is important in adolescent sexual education. It is therefore recommended that there is need for schools and governments at all levels to incorporate sexuality education with specific emphasis on EC among in-school adolescents.

EFFECTS OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION AMONG STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ILORIN, NIGERIA

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