Medical students as sexual health peer educators: who benefits more?

International audience; Background:A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the impact of an educational reproductive healthprogram on medical student peer educators and the secondary school pupils whom they taught.Methods:The Marseille School of Medicine and ten public secondary schools participated in the study. Medicalstudents were recruited and trained as peer educators to promote sexual health in the secondary schools. Themedical students and secondary school pupils were evaluated before and after education program. The mainoutcome measure was the sexual health knowledge score on a 20-item questionnaire (maximum score 20).Results:A total of 3350 students attended the peer-led course conducted by 107 medical students. The medicalstudents’score increased significantly before and after the course (from 15.2 ± 1.8 to 18.3 ± 0.9; p < 0.001). Theknowledge score of the pupils increased (from 7.8 ± 4 to 13.5 ± 4.4; p < 0.001). The girls’score was significantlyhigher than the boys’score after the course, but not before (14.5 ± 3.3 vs 12.5 ± 4.6; p < 0.001). Prior to the course,the score among the female medical students was significantly higher than that of the males. The overall know-ledge increase was not significantly different between medical students and secondary school pupils (mean 3.1 ± 1and 5.7 ± 4 respectively; p > 0.05).Conclusions:The program was effective in increasing the knowledge of medical students as well as secondaryschool pupils. Male sexual health knowledge should be reinforced.