Prevention workshops to promote knowledge about sexuality in adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: Knowledge is essential to teenagers making conscious and responsible choices about their sexual life. Aim: Evaluate whether prevention workshops are effective in increasing teenagers’ knowledge on contraception, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, sexuality and health counseling. Methodology: Teenagers from a Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo) public school, aged 14 to 16, attended prevention workshops. These workshops happened in three different occasions and a questionnaire comprised of 25 true-or-false questions (pretest and posttest) was used to assess the teenagers’ knowledge before and after the workshops. Frequency measures and Student’s t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The workshops were attended by 35 students: 21 girls and 14 boys. Girls exhibited a higher average score on the questionnaire. Satisfactory basic knowledge was identified among the teenagers in general; however, knowledge on some subjects, such as HIV/Aids and unintended pregnancy prevention, was deficient. The general average score for the questionnaire was 18 in pretest and 19,5 in posttest, with statistical significance (p < 0,001). Conclusion: It was concluded that prevention workshops were effective in promoting an increase in teenagers’ knowledge, thus validating these workshops as useful instruments for promoting health.