Comparison of Effect of Puberty Health Education to Mothers and Daughters on Girl’s Knowledge and Practice in Secondary Schools of Tabriz: Single Blind Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Abstract: Puberty and changes resulting from it are one of the most important events of everybody’s life. Considering the role played by mothers in raising the level of knowledge and in improving hygienic behaviors of their daughters. This study was conducted with the purpose of competing the effects of educating mothers and their daughters on the knowledge and practice related to puberty hygiene in adolescent girls in Tabriz, 2014. Patients and methods: this randomized controlled trial was carried out on 364 adolescent students of 12 randomly scented high schools who had experienced menstruation. The students were first matched by the practice scores they received in the pretest and then divided randomly and in equal numbers into three groups: educating the mothers, educating the girls, and the non-intervention group. The questionnaires of Knowledge and practice in the pre- and post-intervention stages (with an interval of two months between them) were completed. The general linear, in which the baseline values were controlled, was employed to compare the scores of the three group after the intervention. Results: there no significant differences between the three groups concerning the scores received on Knowledge and practice prior to the intervention (p >0.05). After the intervention with controlling for scores received before the intervention, the mean score on knowledge in the two groups of educating the mothers (adjusted difference: 0-7; confidence interval (95%:0.0 to 1.3) and educating the (0.8;0.2 to 1.5) were significantly higher compared to the control group. With respect to improvement in the scores received on practice, no significant differences were found between the three groups. Conclusion: results of this study indicate that it is possible to use the method of education the mothers and transferring knowledge from them to their daughters as a substitute for direct educating of the girls in order to raise the level of their Knowledge on puberty hygiene.