ADOLECON 2005

AP 2

Chatterjee Chitra*, Joardar G K**, Chakraborty M***, Sadhukhan S K*, Srivastabha P*, Bhattacharyya R N** *Assistant Professor, **Associate Professor, ***Professor, Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling

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Objectives: To assess current knowledge and opinions of school teachers, who want to act as counselor for adolescent school children, on the health and health related issues of adolescents. To assess change in knowledge and opinions after sensitization.

Study design: Cross sectional observational.

Setting: Sensitization workshops organized in a teaching hospital.

Participants: 108 teachers from 48 schools, including both high & higher secondary schools of urban areas of Siliguri and Jalpaiguri Development Authority and rural area under Naxalbari and Phansidewa blocks of Darjeeling district, West Bengal.

Study variables: Knowledge on adolescent health like their age, puberty, nocturnal emission, virginity of females, teen age pregnancy, abortion, drug abuse; knowledge on STD & HIV/AIDS like routes of transmission, associated risks, protection & curability; as well as opinions on common adolescent problems like masturbation, hygiene during menstruation, morality versus knowledge on sex related issues, premarital sex, role of parents in guiding children, drug addiction and risk of HIV/AIDS.

Methodology: Data collection was done with the help of self-responding pre-designed pretested semi-structured questionnaire during the pre and post sensitization workshop phase. The information thus collected were compiled and analyzed by proper statistical methods.

0% - 36% of teachers had correct knowledge about age of an adolescent, puberty, virginity and legality of MTP services. Though 75.9% - 94.4% of teachers had correct knowledge regarding routes of transmission of HIV, only 12.96% knew that presence of STDs increase the risks of getting HIV. 18.5% teachers had correct knowledge about masturbation, 70.4% teachers had correct knowledge about menstruation and 96% teachers believed in peer group discussion on adolescent sex problems. Significant favorable changes were observed after sensitization among them in almost all the issues and problems (where the knowledge was <70%) of adolescents.

This type of sensitization programme involving all schools of the country could favorably change the existing knowledge and opinions of the school teachers and make them competent to act as teacher counselor for the adolescent school children, which, in turn, will go along way for the benefit of our adolescent children.

Key Words: Cognitive and affective domain, school teachers, counselor.

ADOLECON 2005 - Conference Abstracts.Pediatric Oncall [serial online] 2005 [cited 15 December 2005(Supplement 12)];2. Available from:
http://www.pediatriconcall.com/fordoctor/Conference_abstracts/
school_teacher_knowledge.asp