Educating for the future: adolescent girls’ health and education

in West Bengal, India

By Chris A. Rees1,*, Katelyn N. Long1, Bobbi Gray2,

Joshua H. West3, Sheila Chanani2, Freya Spielberg4
and Benjamin T. Crookston3

The authors of this paper present a comparison og 665 girls from rural West Bengal. They speak
about the important role that the young people play in Indias future and they constitute around 20%
of its population and state that little research has been done to to understand determinants of health
among adolescents . They analysed the data withing the framework of social cognitive theory to
explain the psychosocial dynamics influencing human behaviour as well as to develop methods
bring about behavioural change.Three categories of SCT behavioral, personal and environmental
were seen as dynamic and reciprocal to determine how different factors affected adolescent girls.

Methods

Data used for this study came from nadia discrict of West Bengal. The study was carried out
freedom from hunger . And baseline data of 665 unmarried girls from the original study were
includend and analysis is presented here. Prior approval was taken from the subjects via RTI
International Committee for the protection of human suubjects.

**Data analysis( I copied as it is for you may judge better what needs and what is not required)
All data were double entered by the Center for Microfinance with any
errors being reconciled with hard copies of survey questionnaires.
Statistical analyses were conducted using SAS statistical software
(version 9.2, Cary, NC, USA). Pearson ’ s χ2-tests were used to compare differences in
proportions between those who attended school
and those who did not, whereas f-tests were used to compare means
between girls in school and those who were not. Potential predictors and confounders were
identified conceptually and from univariate analyses and were incorporated into a logistic
regression model,
which was constructed to explore factors associated with school attendance. Variables were
retained or dropped from the model based
on p-values (<0.1). Additionally, regression coefficients and 95 %
confidence intervals were calculated for retained variables.
The tables reflect the results that were obtained from the study
Discussion

Health knowledge and behaviour.

The results of this study demonstrate that girls who are not in school are more likely to have lower
health knowlege ,preventive health behaviour and knowldege of STI and HIV then those going to
school.

In the study they also found that adolescent girls did not understand reasons for menstruation.
Also school going girls were more likely to talk about health issues then those who are not going
The studies findings match those of a UN report who are marginalized hich found that girls who are
marginalized by their exclusion from school and their residence in poor, rural communities are also
marginalized by limited access to health care and social support are at risk of early marriage and
maternal mortality.

For this study 5% girls in school had participated in a health education program and found that
provind informal health education for girls is an ineffective way and SHG’s mothers peers, teachers
and media are an important source of knowledge.

This study is limited in the sense that a secondary data analysis from existing avaliable data was
carried out. And the original study was not designed keeping to examine the
association of school attendance and personal, behavioral,
and environmental factors using a framework guided by SCT.

Finally it concluded that indian adolescent girls who are not in school are at an disadvantage when
it comes health knowledge then compared to those who go to school. And efforts needed to made to
prevent early drop outs . Informal education should be implemented for girls who are not in
school, and their mothers, to improve their health knowledge
and behaviors.