Comparing the effects of premarital booklet- and video-based educations on the reproductive health literacy of engaged couples.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of premarital booklet-based education (BBE) and video-based education (VBE) on engaged couples' RHL.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2021-2022. The study population consisted of engaged couples who referred to Amirkola Premarital Counseling Center, Babol, Iran, to receive premarital counseling. One hundred and ten couples were purposefully recruited and randomly allocated to a 55-couple BBE group and a 55-couple VBE group. Participants in the BBE group received RH-related education through an educational booklet, while participants in the VBE group received RH-related education through 4 weekly RH-related educational videos shared through WhatsApp. The Sexual and Reproductive Health Literacy questionnaire was used to assess RHL at three measurement time points, i.e., before, 4 weeks after, and 2 months after the intervention onset. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (v. 23.0).

Results: The mean score of RHL significantly increased in both BBE and VBE groups ( < 0.001). The time-group interaction was also significant for the mean scores of the access to information, evaluation of information, and decision-making and application dimensions ( < 0.05) and insignificant for the reading and understanding dimension of RHL ( = 0.56).

Conclusion: Both premarital BBE and VBE are effective in significantly improving RHL among engaged couples, while the effects of VBE on some RHL dimensions are significantly more than BBE.