The Effect of School-Linked Module-Based Friendly-Health Education on Adolescents' Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge, Guji Zone, Ethiopia - Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Although access to sexual and reproductive health information is the right and a critical component of health policy, it is not well addressed in pastoral communities. This study assessed the effect of School-Lined Module-based friendly health education on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health knowledge in the pastoral community of Guji Zone, Ethiopia.

Methods: A two-arm cluster Randomized control trial study with pre-post evaluation was conducted among interventions (n=375) compared with control (n=384) in Gorodola and Wadara high schools. Comparing an intervention to a control group, pre-posttests, and post-posttests were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The data was collected using 25 Self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using paired-sample independent t-tests and linear regressions to study the relationship between the outcome and independent variables.

Results: We collected the data from 759 adolescents among 15 intervention and 15 control clusters. The results have shown that as compared to control arms, the mean sexual and reproductive health Knowledge score was significant higher in the intervention clusters (375) 73.3%, vs (384) 66.5%%, p<0.001, 95% CI, (0.05395-0.08347). Information (β: 0.038, 95% CI: 0.028-0.052), confidence (β: 0.045, 95% CI: 0.033-0.057), knowledge (β: 0.05, 95% CI: 0.035-0.066), and compassionate care (β: 0.107, 95% CI: 0.092-0.122) were significantly associated with SRH knowledge prediction. The proportion of SRH knowledge increased from 168(44%) baseline to 244(65%) end line in the intervention versus 235(60% to 238(62%) in control arms.

Conclusion: The execution of school-linked module-based friendly health education has proved to have a significant effect on mean SRH knowledge. Individual-level and behavioral-level factors significantly explain variability in enhancing SRH knowledge in the pastoral community. We recommend scaling up the School-Linked Module-based friendly health education intervention.

Trial Registration: We registered clinical trial PACTR202107905622610 on 16 July 2021.