The Effects of Health Education on Knowledge and Attitudes to Emergency
Contraception by Female Students of a Tertiary Educational Institution
in Enugu, South East Nigeria.
This was an intervention study to assess the effects of health
education on the knowledge and attitudes to emergency contraception
(EC) by female students of University of Nigeria in southeast Nigeria.
A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 337 female
students of a tertiary educational institution (150 in the study group
and 187 from the control group) who were selected by multistage
sampling. Subsequently, health education was conducted only among
students in the study institution. Three months after this
intervention, its effects were assessed through a survey using the same
structured questionnaire employed in the baseline survey. Unlike the
pre-intervention results, knowledge of EC was significantly higher (P
< 0.05) among the study group than the controls. Attitudes to EC
were also more favourable at the post- intervention survey among the
study group. Health education can effectively improve knowledge and
attitudes to EC among female students of tertiary institutions and this
should be encouraged