Knowledge on PCOS among the Nursing Students of a Selected College, Mangaluru

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder commonly affecting the adolescent girls. Globally, the prevalence rate is around 4 to 12% and it affects 5 to 10% women in their reproductive age group. The study was conducted to assess the knowledge on PCOS among the student nurses. This was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among 350 adolescent girls of a selected nursing college recruited using stratified random sampling. A predesigned, pretested, semistructured 16-item questionnaire containing two components-basic knowledge on PCOS (8) and treatment and prevention of PCOS (8), was used for data collection and the results were analyzed. Results revealed that all the adolescent girls (350; 100%) belonged to the age group of 18 to 20 years. It was noted that 306 (87.4%) of students had inadequate knowledge, whereas 44 (12.6%) students had adequate knowledge on PCOS. Significant association was found between primary source of information (p = 0.012) and knowledge on PCOS at 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that conduction of planned teaching programs is necessary to increase comprehensive knowledge with regard to detection of presenting symptoms and foster early diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome thereby promoting overall health.