Effectiveness of an awareness campaign on knowledge regarding the one stop centre programme among adolescent girls in selected higher secondary schools of kanpur, uttar pradesh: a quasi-experimental study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51168/m5f2d336Keywords:
Adolescent girls, awareness campaign, gender-based violence, health education, One Stop Centre, Sakhi, school health, violence against womenAbstract
Background
Violence against women and girls is a major public health and human rights concern, and adolescent girls often do not know where to seek help. The One Stop Centre (OSC), or Sakhi, programme provides integrated medical, police, legal, psychosocial and temporary shelter support under one roof. This study assessed the effectiveness of an awareness campaign on knowledge regarding the OSC programme among adolescent girls.
Methods
A quasi-experimental, one-group pre-test–post-test study was conducted among 60 adolescent girls aged 13–18 years, selected by convenience sampling from two higher secondary schools in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Knowledge was measured with a validated, self-structured 30-item questionnaire before and seven days after a structured awareness campaign. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the paired t-test and the chi-square test, with p < 0.05 considered significant.
Results
At pre-test, 31 (51.7%) girls had inadequate and 29 (48.3%) had moderate knowledge; none had adequate knowledge. After the campaign, 59 (98.3%) had adequate and 1 (1.7%) had moderate knowledge. The mean knowledge score increased from 15.15 ± 4.53 to 28.25 ± 1.38 (mean difference 13.10; 95% CI 11.90–14.30; t = 21.83, df = 59, p < 0.001). Pre-test knowledge was significantly associated with age, but not with place of residence, type of family, religion or monthly family income.
Conclusion
The awareness campaign produced a large and statistically significant improvement in adolescent girls’ knowledge of the OSC programme.
Recommendation
OSC awareness sessions should be built into routine school health and adolescent programmes with periodic reinforcement, and controlled multicentre studies should test long-term retention and actual help-seeking.
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