Abstract
Author(s): Grazyna Baczek, Martyna Padzik, Tomasz Duda, Wojciech Giermaziak
Introduction. It is important to educate young people on the impact that lifestyle has on their health and fertility, which is aimed to develop health-promoting attitude in the future and to improve the society’s health. Reliable knowledge of reproductive health is a prerequisite for responsible behaviour in adult life. Aim. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of an educational programme concerning reproductive age, implemented by a midwife among the youth. The intermediate objective was to evaluate the youth’s knowledge of fertility and factors which determine procreative health. Material and methods. A three-stage survey was carried out in a group of 231 secondary school students. The first stage included preliminary (diagnostic) questionnaire which evaluated the youth’s knowledge level of reproductive age. The second stage covered educational classes implemented by a midwife in the study group. The third stage consisted of re-examining the youth’s knowledge (using the same tool) and evaluating the educational programme by its participants. The participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous, following an expressed consent of the youth and the school authorities. Results. The hypothesis was confirmed which assumed that the youth’s knowledge level of the functions of human reproductive system is low and that participation in the educational programme contributed to an increase in the knowledge level of the issue. The mean number of points in the knowledge test before the lesson amounted to 38 for girls and 32 for boys. After the lesson the score raised to 52 points for girls and 37 for boys. The youth most often pointed out the Internet as the source of knowledge of procreation. Using books as a source of knowledge was declared less often. Conclusions. The youth’s knowledge level of procreative age before participating in the classes was low. The participation in the educational programme contributed to an increase in the knowledge of the area. The study revealed sex-dependent differences, i.e. girls turned out to have greater knowledge. The youth most often get information on procreation from the Internet and their counterparts rather than from parents or during school classes.