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      Awareness of school students on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their sexual behavior: a cross-sectional study conducted in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

      research-article
      Author(s): 1 , , 2 , 1 , 3
      Publication date (Electronic):
      Journal: BMC Public Health
      Publisher: BioMed Central

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          Abstract

          Background

          Sexually transmitted Infections (STIs) rank among the most important health issues for the people especially the young adults worldwide. Young people tend to engage in sexual activity at younger ages in the past decade than in the 1970s, and 1980s. Knowledge is an essential precursor of sexual risk reduction. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, to produce the baseline information about school students' awareness and perception about sexually transmitted Infections (STIs) and their sexual activity to help establish control and education programmes.

          Methods

          Students from form 4 (aged between 15 to 16 years), form 5 (aged between 16 to 17 years) and form 6 (aged between 18 to 20 years) in their class rooms were approached and asked to complete self administered and anonymous pre-validated questionnaires. SPSS for windows version 13 was used to analyze the results statistically and results were presented in tabular form.

          Results

          Data was collected from 1139 students aged between 15 to 20 years, 10.6% of which claimed that they never heard about STIs. Sexual experience related significantly with gender, race, and education level. Approximately 12.6% claimed to have sexual experience of which 75.7% had their sexual debut at 15-19 years and 38.2% were having more than 3 partners. Sexual experience was found to be significantly associated with gender ( p = 0.003), ethnicity ( p = 0.001) and education level ( p = 0.030). However, multiple partner behaviour was significantly associated only with gender ( p = 0.010). Mean knowledge score was 11.60 ± 8.781 and knowledge level was significantly associated with religion (p = 0.005) education level ( p = 0.000), course stream ( p = 0.000), socioeconomic class ( p = 0.000) and sexual experience ( p = 0.022).

          Conclusions

          It was concluded that school students have moderate level of knowledge about STIs although they are sexually active. Interventions such as reinforcing the link between STIs and HIV/AIDS, assessing the current status of sexuality education in schools and arranging public talks and seminars focusing on STIs prevention education are needed to improve their awareness.

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          Most cited references15

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          Beliefs about AIDS, use of alcohol and drugs, and unprotected sex among Massachusetts adolescents.

          R W Hingson, Cheston M. Berlin, R Hingson … (1990)
          In August 1988, 1,773 Massachusetts 16-19-year-olds were surveyed by telephone using anonymous random digit dialing; response rate 82 percent. Logistic regression tested whether alcohol and drug use, perceived susceptibility to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), severity of HIV if infected, effectiveness of condoms in preventing infection, barriers to condom use, and behavioral cues such as exposure to media or personal communication about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were independently related to condom use. Among sexually active respondents, (61 percent of those interviewed) 31 percent reported always using condoms. Respondents who believed condoms are effective in preventing HIV transmission and worried they can get AIDS were 3.1 and 1.8 times, respectively, more likely to use condoms all the time. Respondents who carried condoms and who had discussed AIDS with a physician were 2.7 and 1.7 times, respectively, more likely to use them. Those who believed condoms do not reduce sexual pleasure and would not be embarrassed if asked to use them were 3.1 and 2.4 times, respectively, more likely to use condoms. Teens who averaged five or more drinks daily or used marijuana in the previous month were 2.8 and 1.9 times, respectively, less likely to use condoms. Among respondents who drink and use drugs, 16 percent used condoms less often after drinking and 25 percent after drug use. Those counseling adolescents about HIV should assess and discuss beliefs outlined in the Health Belief Model, as well as their alcohol and drug use.
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            Multiple sexual partners among U.S. adolescents and young adults.

            J Santelli, N D Brener, R Lowry … (2016)
            Because many teenagers and young adults fail to use condoms correctly and consistently, the number of sexual partners they have is an important risk factor for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Identifying factors that are associated with having multiple partners can help in the design of disease interventions. Data on 8,450 males and females aged 14-22 who participated in the 1992 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were used to examine the prevalence of and factors associated with young people's having multiple partners. In all, 63% of female respondents and 64% of males were sexually experienced. Among those who had had sex during the three months before the survey, 15% and 35%, respectively, had had two or more partners during that period. At each age, the majority of sexually experienced respondents had had more than one lifetime partner; between ages 14 and 21, the proportion who had had six or more rose from 8% to 31% among females and from 14% to 45% among males. In logistic regression analyses, alcohol use, illicit drug use and young age at first coitus were associated with increased odds that females had had two or more partners in the previous three months, and being married lowered the odds; black or Hispanic race or ethnicity, alcohol use and young age at first coitus increased the odds for males, and being married reduced the odds. As the number of reported alcohol-related behaviors increased, the adjusted proportion of respondents who had recently had multiple partners rose from 8% to 48% among females and from 23% to 61% among men. The strong association between alcohol use and having multiple sexual partners underscores the need to educate young people about the effects of alcohol on partner choice and the risk of infection with sexually transmitted diseases.
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              Premarital sexual intercourse among adolescents in Malaysia: a cross-sectional Malaysian school survey.

              P. Chen, Kwang Youl Lee, J Kaur (2006)
              Sexual intercourse among Malaysian adolescents is a major concern, especially with the worry of HIV/AIDS. This study was done to determine the prevalence of sexual intercourse among secondary school students aged 12 to 19 years in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional school survey conducted on 4,500 adolescent students based on a structured questionnaire. Data were collected using the self-administered questionnaire (translated version of the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance in Bahasa Malaysia). The study showed that 5.4 percent of the total sample were reported to have had sexual intercourse. The proportion among male students who had had sex was higher (8.3 percent) compared with female students (2.9 percent). The mean age at first sexual intercourse was 15 years. One percent of students reported that they had been pregnant or had made someone else pregnant. Adolescent sexual intercourse was significantly associated with (1) socio-demographical factors (age, gender); (2) environmental factors (staying with parents); and (3) substance use (alcohol use, cigarette smoking, drug use), even after adjustment for demographical factors. The survey showed that 20.8 percent of respondents had taken alcohol, 14.0 percent had smoked cigarettes, 2.5 percent had tried marijuana, 1.2 percent had tried ecstasy pills, 2.6 percent had tried glue sniffing, 0.7 percent had tried heroin, and 0.7 percent had intravenous drugs. Prevalence of sexual intercourse among Malaysian adolescents was relatively low compared to developed countries. However, certain groups of adolescents tend to be at higher risk of engaging in sexual intercourse. This problem should be addressed early by targeting these groups of high-risk adolescents.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health
                Title: BMC Public Health
                Publisher: BioMed Central
                ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458
                Publication date Collection: 2010
                Publication date (Electronic): 30 January 2010
                Volume: 10
                Page: 47
                Affiliations
                [1 ]School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
                [2 ]School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
                [3 ]School of Pharmacy, Island College of Technology, Sungai Rusa, 11000 Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
                Article
                Publisher ID: 1471-2458-10-47
                DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-47
                PMC ID: 2824738
                PubMed ID: 20113511
                SO-VID: 3ca3ea35-47a3-412f-be75-e587b5440404
                Copyright © Copyright ©2010 Anwar et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
                License:

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Date received : 5 October 2009
                Date accepted : 30 January 2010
                Categories
                Subject: Research article

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

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