Teaching Reproductive Health through Telehealth Sessions and Online Modules to Rural High School Students

Abstract

Marshall Teen Talk is an established, successful afterschool program that teaches reproductive health to high school students in McDowell County using telehealth. This study focuses on the expansion of this program involving the addition of online reproductive health modules on the program website (www.marshallteentalk.org). The purpose of this study was to identify if the use of online modules contributed to overall reproductive health knowledge among a group of high school students. Topics covered in the afterschool telehealth sessions and online modules included Anatomy, Relationships, Birth Control, and STD prevention. Knowledge scores were measured by a set of 20 reproductive health questions given as a pre and post test before and after the program. Thirty-five students voluntarily participated in at least one telehealth session and/or online module. The majority of students who completed the modules liked the format and found the information to be easily understood. The differences in overall knowledge scores were significantly improved from pre to post test (14.38 vs 17.14, p<0.001), however, the completion of the online modules did not contribute significantly to an improvement in reproductive health knowledge.