An Integrative Review of the Health Care Needs of Female Adolescents

Development and validation of the tool for the evaluation of the behavioral factors affecting the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in Iranian students

Background

This study was conducted with the aim of developing a standard and valid questionnaire to evaluate the behavioral factors affecting musculoskeletal disorders among adolescent students based on the educational and ecological diagnosis phase of the PRECEDE model.

Methods

Based on the PRECEDE model and by using available resources and a panel of experts, a reservoir of items was proposed. The content validity of the questions was measured using content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI). 400 Iranian first-year female high school students completed the questionnaire. The construct validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Results

The age range of study students was 13.69 ± 0.86 years. The final developed questionnaire included 25 items in three dimensions: knowledge (9 items), attitude (10 items) and enabling factors (6 items). The mean scores of CVI and CVR were 0.97 and 0.92, respectively. The results of CFA confirmed the three-factor structure of the questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the dimensions of knowledge, attitude and enabling factors were 0.65, 0.80 and 0.71, respectively.

Conclusions

The present questionnaire had appropriate psychometric properties and could be used as a valid tool in evaluating the factors affecting the development of musculoskeletal disorders among adolescent students.

Maternal health challenges experienced by adolescents; could community score cards address them? A case study of Kibuku District- Uganda

INTRODUCTION

Approximately 34.8% of the Ugandan population is adolescents. The national teenage pregnancy rate is 25% and in Kibuku district, 17.6% of adolescents aged 12-19 years have begun child bearing. Adolescents mothers are vulnerable to many maternal health challenges including; stigma, unfriendly services and early marriages. The community score card (CSC) is a social accountability tool that can be used to point out challenges faced by the community in service delivery and utilization and ultimately address them. In this paper we aimed to document the challenges faced by adolescents during pregnancy, delivery and postnatal period and the extent to which the community score card could address these challenges.

METHODS

This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews conducted in August 2018 among 15 purposively selected adolescent women who had given birth 2 years prior to the study and had attended CSC meetings. The study was conducted in six sub counties of Kibuku district where the CSC intervention was implemented. Research assistants transcribed the audio-recorded interviews verbatim, and data was analyzed manually using the framework analysis approach.

FINDINGS

This study found five major maternal health challenges faced by adolescents during pregnancy namely; psychosocial challenges, physical abuse, denial of basic human rights, unfriendly adolescent services, lack of legal and cultural protection, and lack of birth preparedness. The CSC addressed general maternal and new born health issues of the community as a whole rather than specific adolescent health related maternal health challenges.

CONCLUSION

The maternal health challenges faced by adolescents in Kibuku have a cultural, legal, social and health service dimension. There is therefore need to look at a multi-faceted approach to holistically address them. CSCs that are targeted at the entire community are unlikely to address specific needs of vulnerable groups such as adolescents. To address the maternal health challenges of adolescents, there is need to have separate meetings with adolescents, targeted mobilization for adolescents to attend meetings and deliberate inclusion of their maternal health challenges into the CSC.

Preparation for sexual and reproductive self-care in Iranian adolescent girls: a qualitative study

Background Adolescence is one of the most important stages in every individual's life. Pubertal changes and acquiring reproduction capability require adolescents to perform special health care processes. Also the possibility of involvement in high-risk sexual behaviors endangers adolescent girls' sexual and reproductive health. Objective Increase and deepen the understanding and knowledge of the factors affecting Iranian adolescent girls' readiness to take care of their sexual and reproductive health. Materials and methods The present qualitative study was conducted using conventional content analysis method. The participants included 18 adolescents who were aged 13-19 years old, single, studying at high school, art school, or university and had no history of chronic medical or psychological diseases; further, most of them had the experience of menstruation. Purposive sampling was initiated and continued until data saturation. Data collection were performed using in-depth and unstructured interviews. Qualitative content analysis of the interviews was conducted simultaneously with data collection using the Graneheim and Lundman approach .MAXQDA 2010 software was used for storage, retrieval, and management of the data. Findings Preparation for care was the main theme that emerged in this study along with 19 subcategories and four main categories, including desirable interaction between families and adolescents, readiness for puberty and menstruation, life skills and spiritual self-monitoring. Conclusion The education and health care systems' authorities of the country can exploit the results of this study for making policies and interventions expedient to the society's cultural conditions in order to improve the reproductive and sexual self-care status of adolescents' girls.

The Effect of a Wellness Program on Adolescent Females

Guided by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a comprehensive wellness intervention on total wellness, physical fitness, and self-efficacy for health promoting behaviors in adolescent females, ages 14 to 19, enrolled in physical education (PE) classes in Grades 9 to 12. The intervention was administered in an experimental pre-test, post-test, two group design in rural east Texas. Participants ( n = 153) were randomly assigned to a 12-week intervention or control group. Independent t-tests to determine differences between the intervention and control groups were nonsignificant for overall wellness and physical fitness. The Wellness Essential-Self subscale score was significantly higher in the intervention group, t(64, 36) = 2.67, p = .005, d = .84. Self-Efficacy Health Promotion subscale scores for the intervention group were also significantly higher, t(20,28) = 2.60, p = .006, d = .74. The intervention has potential to improve overall wellness in adolescent females.