The Effect of Counseling on Health Behaviors of Adolescent girls in Tabriz: A Randomized Controlled Field Trial

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Adolescence is a period of maturity between childhood and adulthood, and is a key step for the establishment of health behaviors. Many of the serious illnesses arise from the bad habits in adolescence. These bad habits consist of inappropriate nutrition and physical inactivity, which lead to illness and early death. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of consultation on the health behaviors of girl adolescents. Method: This randomized controlled field trial was conducted on 120 eligible girls aged 14-18 years old, who studied in one of the ten stratified randomly selected schools among five districts of Tabriz-Iran from October 2017 until January 2018. Schools were randomly assigned to counseling (n = 60) or control groups (n= 60) as one pair in each district. The intervention group participated in three counseling sessions in groups of 6 students for 45-60 minutes at counselling room of high school. The contents of the training sessions were about nutrition, menstrual hygiene, and physical activity. Demographic, nutritional status (FFQ), and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) questionnaires were completed before and eight weeks after intervention. ANCOVA, Chi-square, Fishers exact test, Independnt t-test, Mann-Whitney, Paired T test and Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. Results: Sixty people in the counseling group and 60 in the control group were followed up and analyzed until the end of the study. The two counseling and control groups were similar in terms of socio-demographic characteristics (p>0.05). The consumption of milk & dairy products and vegetables groups increased in the intervention group in comparison to the control group (p<0.001). The mean score of physical activity between the two groups was not statistically significant after intervention (p= 0.686). However, based on within group analysis, there was a significant increase in the physical activity score in the intervention group (p = 0.002). Using ANCOVA test with controlling baseline scores (adjusted mean difference: 26.63; 95% confidence interval: 25.39 to 27.87), the mean score of menstrual hygiene was significantly higher in counseling group comparing with control group. Menstrual hygiene was moderate after intervention in more than half of the intervention group but stay weak in whole of control group, and there was a significant difference between the two groups after counseling (p<0.001). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, counseling sessions for adolescent girls seem to be a good way to improve and reform the daily intake of five recommended food groups and promote their menstrual hygiene and the health of future mothers. Even though in terms of physical activity there was no significant difference between the two groups studied, counseling sessions increased the physical activity in the counseling group.