TITLE:
Health Education Using Videos and Leaflets to Promote Preconception Care for Adolescent Females in Japan Evaluation up to Six Months Later
AUTHORS:
Midori Nagusa
KEYWORDS:
Preconception Care, Adolescent Females, Health Education, Leaflets, Videos, Non-Randomized Controlled Trial
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.17 No.1,
January
27,
2025
ABSTRACT: Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate health education using videos and leaflets for preconception care (PCC) awareness among adolescent females up to six months after the health education. Methods: The subjects were female university students living in the Kinki area. A longitudinal survey was conducted on 67 members in the intervention group, who received the health education, and 52 members in the control group, who did not receive the health education. The primary outcome measures were knowledge of PCC and the subscales of the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile. Surveys were conducted before, after, and six months after the intervention in the intervention group, and an initial survey and survey six months later were conducted in the control group. Cochran’s Q test, Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test, and McNemar’s test were used to analyze the knowledge of PCC data. The Health Awareness, Nutrition, and Stress Management subscales of the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile were analyzed by paired t-test, and comparisons between the intervention and control groups were performed using the two-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: In the intervention group of 67 people, the number of subjects who answered “correct” for five of the nine items concerning knowledge of PCC increased immediately after the health education (P = 0.006) but decreased for five items from immediately after the health education to six months later (P = 0.043). In addition, the number of respondents who answered “correct” for “low birth weight infants and future lifestyle-related diseases” (P = 0.016) increased after six months compared with before the health education. For the 52 subjects in the control group, there was no change in the number of subjects who answered “correct” for eight out of the nine items after six months. There was also no increase in scores for the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile after six months for either the intervention or control group. Conclusion: Providing health education about PCC using videos and leaflets to adolescent females was shown to enhance the knowledge of PCC immediately after the education.