Reproductive health care knowledge among Romanian adolescent
girls
I.E. Blidaru1, M. Roman2, I. Catighera2, V. Ciuchi1, R. Plesca2, A.
Nistor3, M. Scripcaru3
14-th Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, “Gr.
T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania, 2Family
Planning Unit, “Cuza-Voda” Maternity Hospital, Iasi, Romania, 3“M.
Ciuca” Institute of Public Health, Iasi, Romania
Objective Our paper aims
to evaluate sexual and contraceptive use knowledge, as well as the choice of a
method, among Romanian teenage schoolgirls.
Design and method The
investigation is based on the data that is collected through a questionnaire
that was administered to one hundred adolescent schoolgirls, half of the group
being from a country-side school, while the other half is from a large city
school. The mean age in the group is 18 years. In the context of almost
homogeneous age and level of education, the explanatory variables refer to
socio-economic aspects (e.g. type of school attended, town size, family budget,
religion), as well as sexual and contraceptive behavior indicators (e.g. age at
first intercourse, number and type of pregnancies, basic knowledge about
contraception and sexual transmitted diseases). Some of the results are
expressed in terms of odds ratio.
Results According to the answers, over 90% of
the subjects are orthodox Romanian and belong to medium budget families.
Regarding the sexual debut, 34% are declaring it at = 18 years, with a slight
predominance for urban area subjects, the affirmed reasons for that being love
(41%) and curiosity (7%); 2% have been pregnant. Of the total number of
respondents, 82% know the meaning of contraception, but only 60% are aware of
its role of protection against sexually transmitted diseases, among which some,
even quite common like trichomoniasis, are almost unknown. Even if 81% have
heard about the contraceptive pill, only about half of the urban area subjects
and 10% of those from the rural area would be ready to use it (p<0.005). Finally, the most suitable counselors in the above issues seem to be the gynecologist (68%), the G.P. (25%) and the mother (31%), certain subjects giving combined answers.
Conclusions Except for the differences in knowledge and
acceptance of the various contraceptive methods between the two investigated
categories, the teenage schoolgirls have rather similar and insufficient levels
of basic information in the field of reproductive health care. Consequently, we
consider it is necessary to implement an adequate system of reproductive
healthcare education throughout schooling by means of collaboration between the
different educating bodies influencing the lives of pupils, such as professors,
doctors, and their families.