Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, US.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, US.
Ann Glob Health. 2020 Jun 10;86(1):57. doi: 10.5334/aogh.2791.
India's 120 million adolescent girls often have limited opportunities to receive health education, as health-related content in school curricula can be minimal, and the few existing external interventions for this demographic rarely cover multiple topics.
This study conducted a program evaluation of Girls Health Champions, a school-based peer education intervention in Mumbai, India that educates girls about leading causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality, including nutrition, mental health, and sexual & reproductive health.
Female participants ages 12 to 16 in the eighth, ninth, and tenth standards were recruited at five participating schools in Mumbai, India to learn a multi-topic health curriculum from their peers, with a subset of ninth standard participants in each school trained as the peer educators. Using a quasi-experimental design, participant survey data was collected three times during the 2016-2017 academic year: at baseline, immediately following the peer-led education sessions, and five months following these sessions. Outcomes of interest included change in knowledge levels and health attitudes following the intervention, as well as retention at mid-year. An additional outcome was the change in self-reported leadership skills of peer educators before and after participating.
Compared to baseline, participants demonstrated statistically significant increases in knowledge levels (+48%, p < 0.001) and positive shifts in health-related attitudes (+42%, p < 0.001). These changes were maintained at mid-year (+29% for knowledge levels, p < 0.001; +37% for attitudes, p < 0.001). Findings were consistent when data was stratified by standard and peer educator status (peer educators versus non-peer educators). Peer educators also demonstrated a statistically significant increase in their interest in health promotion.
This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the peer education delivery model and finds school-based, peer-led programs covering a range of adolescent health topics can significantly increase knowledge and shift attitudes of program participants. Such benefits can accrue to both peer educators and non-peer educator program participants.
印度有 1.2 亿青春期少女，她们接受健康教育的机会往往有限，因为学校课程中的健康相关内容可能很少，而且现有的少数针对这一年龄段的外部干预措施很少涵盖多个主题。
本研究对印度孟买的一项基于学校的同伴教育干预措施——“少女健康卫士”进行了项目评估，该措施教育女孩了解导致青少年发病和死亡的主要原因，包括营养、心理健康以及性与生殖健康。
在印度孟买的五所参与学校招募年龄在 12 至 16 岁的八年级、九年级和十年级的女性参与者，让她们从同龄人那里学习多主题健康课程，每所学校的部分九年级参与者被培训为同伴教育者。使用准实验设计，在 2016-2017 学年期间，共收集了三次参与者调查数据：基线时、在同伴主导的教育课程结束后立即，以及在这些课程结束后五个月。感兴趣的结果包括干预后知识水平和健康态度的变化，以及年中保留率。另一个结果是同伴教育者在参与前后自我报告的领导技能的变化。
与基线相比，参与者的知识水平显著提高（+48%，p < 0.001），健康相关态度也发生了积极转变（+42%，p < 0.001）。这些变化在年中保持不变（知识水平增加 29%，p < 0.001；态度增加 37%，p < 0.001）。当按标准和同伴教育者地位对数据进行分层时（同伴教育者与非同伴教育者），发现结果一致。同伴教育者也表现出对健康促进的兴趣显著增加。
本研究证明了同伴教育交付模式的有效性，并发现以学校为基础、由同伴主导的涵盖一系列青少年健康主题的项目可以显著提高参与者的知识水平并改变他们的态度。这些益处既可以惠及同伴教育者，也可以惠及非同伴教育者项目参与者。
