Dataset Information

STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents.

ABSTRACT: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to individual and public health. They disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed self-rated and factual STI knowledge in a sample of 9th graders in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Differences by age, gender, migrant background, and school type were quantified using bivariate and multivariable analyses. A total of 1177 students in 61 classes participated. The mean age was 14.6 (SD = 0.7), 47.5% were female, and 52.9% had at least one immigrant parent. Knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was widespread, but other STIs were less known. For example, 46.2% had never heard of chlamydia, 10.8% knew of the HPV vaccination, and only 2.2% were aware that no cure exists for HPV infection. While boys were more likely to describe their knowledge as good, there was no general gender superiority in factual knowledge. Children of immigrants and students in the least academic schools had lower knowledge overall. Our results show that despite their particular risk to contract an STI, adolescents suffer from suboptimal levels of knowledge on STIs beyond HIV. Urgent efforts needed to improve adolescent STI knowledge in order to improve the uptake of primary and secondary prevention.

SUBMITTER: von Rosen FT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5800209 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents.

von Rosen Frederik Tilmann FT von Rosen Antonella Juline AJ Müller-Riemenschneider Falk F Damberg Inken I Tinnemann Peter P

International journal of environmental research and public health 20180110 1

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to individual and public health. They disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed self-rated and factual STI knowledge in a sample of 9th graders in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Differences by age, gender, migrant background, and school type were quantified using bivariate and multivariable analyses. A total of 1177 students in 61 classes participated. The mean age was ...[more]

PMID: 29320464

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Project description:Globally, over one million people acquire curable sexually transmitted infections (STI) each day. Understanding how people think about STIs is key to building culturally appropriate STI prevention and treatment programs. We explored STI knowledge and perceptions in rural, southwestern Uganda to inform future interventions. From August 2020 to December 2020, we conducted individual in-depth interviews among adult men and women (≥18 years) with recent or current personal or partner pregnancy, a history of an STI diagnosis and treatment, and membership in an HIV-sero-different relationship. Interviews explored STI knowledge, perceptions, and barriers and facilitators to engaging in STI care. We used inductive and deductive approaches to generate a codebook guided by the healthcare literacy skills framework in a thematic analysis. Ten men with STI, five of their female partners, eighteen women with STI, and four of their male partners participated in individual in-depth interviews. The median age was 41 (range 27-50) for men and 29 (range 22-40) for women. Sixteen (43%) participants were with HIV. Significant themes include: 1) Participants obtained STI knowledge and information from the community (friends, family members, acquaintances) and medical professionals; 2) While participants knew STIs were transmitted sexually, they also believed transmission occurred via non-sexual mechanisms. 3) Participants associated different connotations and amounts of stigma with each STI, for example, participants reported that syphilis was passed down "genetically" from parent to child. 4) Participants reported uncertainty about whether STIs affected pregnancy outcomes and whether antenatal STI treatment was safe. The complicated nature of STIs has led to understandable confusion in settings without formal sexual healthcare education. Robust counseling and education prior to sexual debut will help allow men and women to understand the signs, symptoms, and treatments necessary for STI cure and to navigate often complicated and overburdened healthcare systems.

Project description:ObjectiveRecently there have been calls to strengthen integration of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention messages, spurred by increasing use of long-acting reversible contraception. To assess the extent to which public health/clinical messages about unintended pregnancy prevention also address STI prevention, we conducted a content analysis of web-based health promotion information for young people.Study designWebsites identified through a systematic Google search were eligible for inclusion if they were operated by a United States-based organization with a mission related to public health/clinical services and the URL included: 1) original content; 2) about sexual and reproductive health; 3) explicitly for adolescents and/or young adults. Using defined protocols, URLs were screened and content was selected and analyzed thematically.ResultsMany of the 32 eligible websites presented information about pregnancy and STI prevention separately. Concurrent discussion of the two topics was often limited to statements about (1) strategies that can prevent both outcomes (abstinence, condoms only, condoms plus moderately or highly effective contraceptive methods) and (2) contraceptive methods that confer no STI protection. We also identified framing of condom use with moderately or highly effective contraceptive methods for back-up pregnancy prevention but not STI prevention. STI prevention methods in addition to condoms, such as STI/HIV testing, vaccination, or pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis, were typically not addressed with pregnancy prevention information.ConclusionsThere may be missed opportunities for promoting STI prevention online in the context of increasing awareness of and access to a full range of contraceptive methods.ImplicationsStrengthening messages that integrate pregnancy and STI prevention may include: describing STI prevention strategies when noting that birth control methods do not prevent STIs; promoting a full complement of STI prevention strategies; and always connecting condom use to STI prevention, even when promoting condoms for back-up contraception.

Dataset Information

STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents.

Publications

STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents.

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