The Effect of Counseling on Menstrual Hygiene, Physical Activity, and Nutritional Status of Female Adolescent Students: A Randomized Controlled Field Trial

Objectives: Adolescence is a period of maturity between childhood and adulthood and thus is considered as a key step for the establishment of health behaviors. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of consultation on the healthy behaviors of girl adolescents. Methods: This randomized controlled field trial was conducted on 120 eligible girls aged 14-18 years old who studied in one of the ten stratified randomly selected schools among five districts of Tabriz-Iran from October 2017 to January 2018. The schools were randomly assigned to counseling (n=60) or control (n=60) groups as one pair in each district. The intervention group participated in three 45-60-minute counseling sessions about health behaviors in groups of six students. In addition, demographic, menstrual hygiene questionnaire, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), as well as the international physical activity questionnaire were completed by participants before and 8 weeks after the intervention. All analyses were based on the intention to evaluate the healthy behaviors of girl adolescents. Results: Both counseling and control groups were similar in terms of socio-demographic characteristics (P>0.05). The adjusted analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the baseline scores indicated a significant increase in the mean score of menstrual hygiene in the counseling group compared to the control group (adjusted mean difference =26.63, 95% confidence interval =25.39-27.87). Further, the consumption of milk and vegetable groups increased in the intervention group as compared to the control group (P<0.001). However, the mean score of physical activity was not statistically significant between the two groups after the intervention (P=0.686) while, based on within-group analysis, a significant increase was observed in the physical activity score in the intervention group (P=0.002). Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, counseling sessions for adolescent girls seem to be a good way to improve their health behaviors and promote the health of future mothers.