Comprehensive sexuality education program among students from 10th grade in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

It is estimated that more than 1.8 billion people in the world are between 10 – 24 years of age called adolescents and young people, out of which 90% lives in low- and middle-income countries. Studies show that adolescents experience many changes during the period of 10 – 19 years old, including physical, mental, and emotional changes. The tendency to find sexual attention among adolescents at this period can lead to a practice of risky sexual behaviors. The outcome of risky sexual behaviors due to unprotected sexual intercourse can include infection with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI), abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth. To prevent adolescents from unwanted health risks, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), referred to as the Cairo agenda, called the governments to provide sexuality education for the well-being of adolescents. Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programs can follow different methods; the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) has shown a significant improvement in adolescents’ health. The main objective of this program is: by the end of the third month, knowledge and attitude scores on sexual and reproductive health among 10th grade students after the implementation of the comprehensive sexuality education program in Madurai city, Tamil Nadu, will be 50% higher in the intervention group than in the control group. The quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design (pre and post-test, panel) is proposed for the evaluation of this program. The proposed program will use cluster random sampling for the selection of participants for the evaluation.