Knowledge, Attitude and Performance of K-9 Girl Students of Ilam City toward Puberty Health in 2013-14

Teenage is considered as a critical and invaluable period of any individual life, and puberty is the most important development of such age. The girl's health caring due to their future motherhood tasks is so important. The current study aimed at the assessment of knowledge, attitude and performance of k9 female students toward puberty health at Ilam, in 2013-14 academic year.
Material & In a cross-sectional study, 201 female k9 students were selected through multiple stage (cluster-simple random) sampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data and the data were analyzed using χ2, Fisher exact, and Pearson’s correlationtestsin SPSS-16 software.
Findingss: The age average of studied people was 13.87 ± 0.63 while menarche one was 13 years. The puberty awareness for 61.2%, and attitude for 77.1% of attendants were moderate, however their performance in this regard for 12.9% and 71.1% were good, and moderate, respectively. The mother's education and job showed a statistically significant correlation to students puberty awareness (r= 0.18, P= 0.01). Further, having an older sister showed statistically significant correlation to students knowledge on puberty health (P=0.019).
Discussion & Due to low level of puberty knowledge among studied students, arrangement of educational and curricular programs on physical, mental, and social aspects of puberty, along with development of consultation offices at schools are recommended. Improvement of mother's knowledge through educational programs will be useful, as knowledge source for the most of the respondents was their mother.