School Teacher’s Readiness to Raise Awareness About Menstruation and Cervical Cancer Among Adolescent Girls in Schools of Delhi. A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: School teachers can play a crucial role in health promotion of adolescent girls by creating awareness. But first teachers should have right information for this. Therefore, this study aims to assess school teacher’s readiness to create awareness about menstrual hygiene and cervical cancer among adolescent girls in schools of Delhi. Methods: Public and Private schools of Delhi were selected through convenience sampling. All female teachers from fifth to twelfth standard of each selected school were included in the study. Data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. Knowledge was assessed by scoring “1” to right response and “0” to wrong answer/don’t know. The open-ended questions were only quoted and validated with the knowledge score. Results: Majority 87.18% of the teachers had good knowledge of menstruation while 65.83% had good knowledge of cervical cancer. A higher proportion of public school teachers were found to have good knowledge of menstruation as compared to private school teachers. Conclusion: Science & physical educations were more knowledgeable than all other subject teachers. Teachers were willing to promote reproductive health of students. Therefore, they can be engaged to impart health education to students.