Peer Education: Participatory Qualitative Educational Needs Assessment

BACKGROUND In the area of youth health, peers education is an approach to health promotion. Assess the training needs of peers educators clarifies the components, values, and quality of training protocols. Aim to that we conducted a participatory educational needs assessment of youth peer educators. METHODS Involving youth and key informants in direct collaboration with research team, a qualitative approach was planned based on grounded theory. For data collection a semi-structured guide questioning was designed. Sixteen focus group discussions and 8 in depth interview were held. RESULTS The majority of participants emphasized on the importance of mental health, life skills, AIDS prevention, contraception methods, and healthy nutrition as the main training topics. They were extremely interested into the comprehensive educational material among their participatory role in peer programs. CONCLUSION The training programs should be well defined based on the knowledge, skills and behavior of peers. During the implementation, training programs should be followed to meet the ongoing educational needs of service providers.