La educación y el ejercicio responsable de la sexualidad en adolescentes

Purpose: In order to contribute in generating strategies to solve reproductive and sexual health problems, the Nursing Care Research Group from the Nursing School at Universidad del Valle carried out this study to evaluate the impact of an education intervention to empower the adolescents about their sexual and reproductive right and duties. Methodology: The design was time series; the study lasted 12 months and the sample were 129 male and female adolescents. The variables were measured before the intervention, 3 and 6 months after the intervention. Findings: After the intervention, there was a significant increase of adolescents having genital sexual activity, especially among the girls. There was also an increase of double protection contraceptive practices. However, a high proportion of adolescents did not involve in genital sexual activity. After the intervention there were no pregnancies, nor STI cases. Problems related to sexuality and physical abuse also decreased after the intervention. Conclusion: It is very important to study the adolescent's lived experiences during the intervention in order to understand the reasons to become sexually active. Self medication of contraceptive drugs and the lack of health institutions follow up of the adolescents using contraceptives is a finding suggesting the need to improve contraceptive health services for adolescents