Assessing Health Education Techniques in Enhancing the Knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Adolescents

Introduction: Adolescent refers to individuals between the ages of 10-19 years. In Nepal, Adolescent comprises more than 22% of population. Educations are important as a ‘social vaccine’, and it can serve as a powerful preventive tool.

Methods: The study was conducted on three secondary school of in Hansapur Village Development Committees, Arghakhanchi district. The sampling design used for the study was stratified random sampling. A sample size of 300 adolescent students was taken.

Results: Mean pre-intervention knowledge scores were 57.36±17.44 for pre intervention groups. After health education by the five methods in the five subgroups, the pooled mean knowledge score was enhanced to 81.80±16.47. It was highly significant (p<0.001). The overall increase in Post-intervention mean score in the intervention group (From Pre- intervention to Post-intervention) was 20.32 percent. The corresponding pre-intervention mean scores were 10.98±5.04, 12.06+6.01, 12.35±5.68, 10.98±4.99, and 10.98±4.99 respectively. Immediately after the educational activities the mean knowledge scores (Post-intervention score) enhanced to 13.13±4.96, 14.93±5.96, 16.16±6.25, 19.36±5.50, 18.20±7.16 in the book, lecture, poster pamphlets, video and participatory lecture groups respectively. It was highly significant for all the five intervention subgroups.

Conclusion: Video and the participatory lecture are the most effective health education techniques for effective delivery of HIV/AIDS. It is suggested that programme implementers might chose the suitable methods required for their individual programmes.