The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #62307

Ismat Bhuiya, MSc MPH¹, M. E. Khan, PhD², Ubaidur Rob, Ph D², and Laila Rahman, MCom¹. (1) Bangladesh Country Office, Population Council, House # CES (B) 21, Road # 118, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 880 2 882-1227, ibhuiya@pcdhaka.org, (2) Bangladesh Country Office, Population Council Asia & Near East Region, House CES (B) 21, Road 118, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Out of 129 million populations in Bangladesh - 32 million are adolescents. One third of them are in schools. There is neither provision for sexual and reproductive health(SRH) education in the secondary school nor any clinic-level health care services. Hence, a pilot project was undertaken for improving adolescents’ SRH.

Two sites were selected for interventions - at one site school and community education program was linked with the health services(HS) while in another area only community education program was linked with HS. Two population-based surveys were conducted before and after the interventions. To assess the cost-effectiveness of the two interventions all cost related data were recorded and analyzed, such as financial and opportunity cost for planning the interventions, training of service providers, supervision of activities, and delivery of services.

The findings indicated knowledge about time of conception during physical development, fertile period, 3 or more potential health risk of early pregnancy, and at least 3 modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS was increased more in school-linked site (47%, 11%, 19%, 26%) than non school-linked site (39%, 2%, 14%, 24%) respectively. The rate of safe sex behavior was increased among sexually active adolescents in school-linked site (30%) than non school-linked site (24%). Health service utilization by adolescents increased 3.6 times where schools were linked with HS compared to the other one. It was also found that opportunity and financial cost were less in school-linked site than the non-school and per visit cost was 1.5 times less at the school-linked site.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to:
• Recognize the benefits of schools linked SRH program.
• List strategies for providing SRH services to adolescents in existing facilities

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.