Feasibility and effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health education on the internet

Chaohua Lou, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research
Quan Zhao, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research
Ersheng Gao, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research

This was an internet-based intervention study of sex education. Two high schools and four colleges of a university in Shanghai were selected as the research sites. The intervention lasted 10 months and the education was provide through the website (www.youthhood.com.cn). The website offered sexual and RH knowledge, service information, counselling and discussion for all grade one students in the intervention group. In order to test the feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention, baseline survey was conducted in both groups prior to the implementation of the intervention, then similar survey was conducted in both groups after the intervention. Totally, 624 students from the intervention school/colleges, and 713 from the control school/colleges enrolled, and about 97% of these were re-interviewed at follow-up. The study showed Internet-based education program increased students’ RH knowledge effectively and made high school students’ attitude to sex more conservative. The changes of the sex-related behaviours were not observed in this study.