Assessment of the efficiency of web-based pre-marriage training provided to couples before the marriage

This research was performed to determine the effect of web-based pre-marriage training provided to engaged couples on their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, marital adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-efficacy. A randomized controlled experimental study was conducted at a registry office of Cankaya Municipality, Turkey from September 2021 to November 2022. 60 engaged couples (30 couples in the intervention group and 30 couples in the control group) that will get married for the first time and meet the inclusion criteria were included in the study. A web-based pre-marriage training was provided to the intervention group and standard monitoring was performed for the control group. A "Data Collection Form" and a "Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge Test - Pretest" were used to collect data before the marriage. Data were collected through the "Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge Test - Posttest", "Marital Adjustment Scale", "New Sexual Satisfaction Scale" and "Sexual Self-Efficacy Scale" at 4 months after the marriage. After the normality assumptions, descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation) were used to assess data, and t-test was used to compare the intervention and control groups in terms of scale scores and knowledge test pretest/posttest scores. The Pearson Correlation test was used for correlational analysis and statistical significance was accepted as p<0.05 for all analyses. Sexual and reproductive health posttest knowledge scores of the group which received pre-marriage training were higher with statistical significance (p<0.01). The Marital Adjustment Scale, New Sexual Satisfaction Scale and Sexual Self-Efficacy Scale scores of the intervention group were also significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). It was concluded that pre-marriage training provided before marriage contributes to the improvement of couples' knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, marital adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and sexual self-efficacy. Furthermore, this training provided by a women's health nurse has proven that web-based technologies play a key role in counseling.