Does Menstrual Health and Endometriosis Education Affect Knowledge Among Middle and Secondary School Students? A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial

rct OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 1 in-corpus citation
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-12

This cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of menstrual health and endometriosis education on knowledge levels among middle and secondary school students.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether endometriosis and menstrual health education improves knowledge and attitudes among adolescents and is acceptable. METHODS: We conducted a cluster-randomised controlled trial in a Canadian school district. Eligible classes were grades 8-12, co-educational, and English. Classes were randomly assigned either to a 60-minute virtual menstrual health and endometriosis education program before (intervention) or after (waitlist control) primary data collection. The primary outcome was change in endometriosis knowledge from baseline to follow-up (∼4 weeks later, 6-item questionnaire). Secondary outcomes were changes in confidence in endometriosis knowledge, prioritisation of menstrual health knowledge, and comfort in discussing menstrual health, as well as intervention acceptability. The sexual health educator and statistician were masked. RESULTS: In April and May 2021, 2 intervention classes and 2 control classes completed the study. In total, 71 students enrolled, and 48 were present on both baseline and follow-up days. Mean age was 15.7 ± 1.6 years, 55% identified as non-White ethnicities, and 53% were female. The knowledge score increased by 1.86 points in the intervention classes compared with 0.30 points in the control classes, with an estimated mean difference of 1.56 (95% CI 1.12-2.00). The intervention classes showed increased confidence in endometriosis knowledge, prioritisation of menstrual health knowledge, and comfort in discussing menstrual health, compared to the control classes. The mean acceptability index was 80 (SD = 10) in the intervention classes and 70 (SD = 20) in the control classes. CONCLUSIONS: A brief menstrual health and endometriosis education program improved knowledge and attitudes among adolescents, who considered the program acceptable.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (23)

Cited by (3)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:08:39.051465+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-07-26T06:06:20.640728+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK