the effect of sexual health education on sexual health principles

background: sexual health education is one the fundamentals of health promotion. the aim of this study was to determine the effects of sexual health education on observing sexual health principles among women referred to health centers of hamedan.   methods : this study was a quasi- experimental one which was carried out on 225 women referred to health centers of hamedan as one pre-test post-test group.   20 three-day workshops about sexual health were held for the subjects . data gathering device was a questionnaire with three parts of demographic information, sexual health knowledge and practice which was completed both before and 2 weeks after the intervention. the gathered data was analyzed by spss software 16.   results: comparing the subjects sexual health knowledge and practice before and after the intervention revealed that subjects with poor (34.98%) and moderate(83%) knowledge reached to good and very good knowledge ( after the intervention). also subjects with poor (33.4% ) and unsuitable(38.9% ) practice reached to moderate and good levels of practice. overall, data analysis showed that sexual health education has positive effects on subjects’ sexual knowledge and practice (p = 0.0001).   conclusion: according to this study sexual health education leads to observing sexual health principle, prevents from sexual problems and contributes to a good sexual relationship between couples.