ABSTRACT
Introduction: Teenagers [especially girls] who are going through puberty are among vulnerable populations whose sexual needs receive little attention
Objective: This study aimed to determine educational needs of 11-14 year old girls on sexual health in Dezful
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 810 middle school girls aging 11 to 14 in Dezful city in 2012. Samples were selected by cluster sampling method. Data collection instrument was a researcher made questionnaire including 14 questions on demographic data and 46 questions on 4 domains of puberty, menstruation, sex relationship and reproduction using articles and resource reviews.Descriptive statistics and Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis test were used for quantitative and qualitative data analysis
Results: The knowledge of girls on puberty, menstruation and reproductive was weak. Need to get information on puberty health [underwear wash with soap, shaving] and menstruation [age of menarche, menstruation blood source, dysmenorrhea] was 95/7% and 97/5% respectively. The most important source of information on puberty [51/1], menstruation [54/2%] mother, sexual activity [42/5%] friends and reproduction [32/1%] was sister. There was a significant correlation between mother's education level and need to obtain information on puberty, menstruation and reproduction using Chi-square test [P<0/05]
Conclusion: In attention to the need for samples to receive information on sexual health and the role of mothers as the most important source of information to girls, people based training approaches [family education through health volunteers] is the best solution