KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE RELATED TO RISKY HEALTH BEHAVIOR AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Adolescents' risky health behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on
multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults.
This study was conducted with an aim to assess the knowledge and practice related to risky health behaviour among
adolescents and to find out whether any difference exists between gender and age groups with regard to their risky
health behaviour. The study was conducted in three districts of Tamil Nadu and was descriptive in nature. An interview
schedule was used as tool of data collection. The total sample size was 628. Four Hundred young boys and girls (School
students) in the age group of 11-18 years were selected from the schools by using Simple Random Lottery method. Then,
258 young boys and girls in the age group of 18-25 years (late adolescents) were selected from out of schools by using
Purposive sampling. 3 FGDs for men and 3 FGDs for women were conducted for qualitative phase. The significant
findings were, knowledge on menstruation is very poor among both male and female respondents, both the male and
female respondents were not highly aware of changes that women experience during menstruation, male respondents
had slightly better aware of the changes that women experience during menstruation, awareness on items used during
menstruation was high among female respondents and mostly they were not sharing toilet with other household as open
defecation is largely prevalent. It was suggested that the parents school teachers and PHC staff, PRIs, ICDS, Anganwadis
have crucial roles to play in creating knowledge on risky healthy behaviours among adolescents as well as monitoring
them regularly.