School of Public Health, Department of Reproductive Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia (Britain Origin), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Front Public Health. 2023 Oct 23;11:1203376. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1203376. eCollection 2023.
Although appropriate life skills are recognized as a fundamental right for adolescents and a critical component of health policy, they are often overlooked and rarely researched in pastoral communities. Life skills encompass the ability to adopt positive behaviors, which enable individuals to effectively deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-linked life skills intervention program on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health skills in the pastoral community of Guji zone.
A two-arm cluster randomized control trial with a pretest-posttest experimental design was conducted, involving the intervention group ( = 375) and the control group ( = 384). This study assessed the effect of a school-linked adolescent-friendly life skills intervention in comparison to the usual RH curriculum, used as a control arm. Pretest-posttest and posttest-posttest scores of the control group and trial groups were compared, and the data were collected using 27 self-administered questions. The collected data were analyzed using paired-sample independent -tests and a generalized linear model to examine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.
Data were collected from 759 adolescents in 15 intervention and 15 control clusters. The findings have shown that the proportion of mean life skills score was significantly higher in the intervention clusters than controls [(375) 70.49% vs. (384) 62.25%, < 0.001 95% CI (0.06 and 0.1)]. Adolescents who were trained in school-linked life skills (β = 1.915, 95% CI: 1.411-2.418), were confident to make safe and informed decisions (β = 1.999, 95% CI: 1.562-2.436), and had life skills to deal with SRH issues (β = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.233-2.087) were significantly correlated with predicting the relevant life skills. The proportion of adolescents with SRH life skills increased from 384 (52%) at baseline to 375 (70%) at end line in the intervention group compared to 384 (60.31%) at baseline to 384 (62.31%) in control arms, respectively.
The implementation of a school-linked life skills intervention program proved to have a significant effect on SRH life skills development. Furthermore, individual-level and behavioral-level variables were significant in explaining variability in life skills development within the pastoral community. Therefore, we recommend scaling up this intervention in all high schools.
Trial registration PACTR202107905622610, registered on 16 July 2021.
尽管适当的生活技能被认为是青少年的一项基本权利和健康政策的重要组成部分，但在牧区社区，这些技能往往被忽视，很少得到研究。生活技能包括采取积极行为的能力，这使个人能够有效地应对日常生活的需求和挑战。本研究旨在评估学校联系的生活技能干预方案对古吉地区牧区青少年性与生殖健康技能的有效性。
采用前后测实验设计的两臂整群随机对照试验，包括干预组（n=375）和对照组（n=384）。本研究比较了学校联系的青少年友好型生活技能干预与通常的 RH 课程的效果，后者作为对照组。比较了对照组和试验组的前后测和后测后测分数，并使用 27 个自我管理问题进行了数据收集。使用配对样本独立 t 检验和广义线性模型分析了收集的数据，以检验因变量和自变量之间的关系。
从 15 个干预组和 15 个对照组的 759 名青少年中收集了数据。研究结果表明，干预组的平均生活技能评分比例明显高于对照组[（375）70.49%比（384）62.25%，<0.001 95%置信区间（0.06 和 0.1）]。接受学校生活技能培训的青少年（β=1.915，95%置信区间：1.411-2.418）、有信心做出安全明智的决定（β=1.999，95%置信区间：1.562-2.436）和有应对 SRH 问题的生活技能（β=1.66，95%置信区间：1.233-2.087）与预测相关生活技能显著相关。与对照组相比，干预组青少年的 SRH 生活技能比例从基线时的 384 名（52%）增加到终点时的 375 名（70%），而对照组从基线时的 384 名（60.31%）增加到终点时的 384 名（62.31%）。
学校联系的生活技能干预方案的实施对 SRH 生活技能的发展有显著影响。此外，个体水平和行为水平的变量在解释牧区社区生活技能发展的变异性方面具有重要意义。因此，我们建议在所有高中推广这一干预措施。
试验注册 PACTR202107905622610，于 2021 年 7 月 16 日注册。
