SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE PREVENTION: KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, AND PRACTICES AMONG SCHOOL PUPILS

Introduction: Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are serious problems for adolescents and young people. To protect adolescents from these diseases, there is a need to educate them on STD prevention by providing them with relevant information and equipping them with the life skills that will enable them to put knowledge into practice. It is recommended that STD-prevention programmes should take into account sex differences. However, limited data are available on how adolescent boys and girls differ in knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding STD prevention in the same study setting.

Aim: To examine sex differences in knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding STD prevention among junior secondary school pupils in the Kassena-Nankana district, Ghana.

Design: This research report is based on secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional knowledge, attitude, and practice survey of sexual and reproductive health conducted among junior secondary school pupils in the Kassena-Nankana district in 2005. The original survey had been carried out before the subject ‘Adolescent sexual and reproductive health’ was initiated in junior secondary schools in this district as an intervention study. Responses from 6,225 school pupils aged 10-19 years (3,011 schoolboys and 3,214 schoolgirls) were analysed using StataTM version 9.0 software.

Results: The study found that school pupils had unsatisfactory knowledge about STDs; boys tended to be more knowledgeable than girls (p < 0.05). In terms of attitude towards condom use, a significantly higher percentage of boys (70%) compared with girls (61%) felt confident about insisting on condom use whenever they had sex. However, boys were more likely to be involved in sexual risk behaviours than girls. Eighteen percent of boys and 8% of girls reported being sexually experienced (p < 0.05). Boys started having sex earlier than girls (at 14.5 compared with 15.1 years, p < 0.05). Sixty-two percent of boys had sex with multiple partners compared with 32% of girls (p < 0.05). The mean number of lifetime sexual partners of boys and girls was 4.2 and 2.5, respectively (p < 0.05). The percentage of people reporting non-use of condoms during last sexual encounter was significantly higher among boys (37%) than girls (29%). Differences were observed in association of knowledge and attitudes regarding STD prevention with sexual activities among both boys and girls.

Conclusion: Results from the study show sex differences in knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding STD prevention among school pupils. This underlines the need for specific STD- prevention education programmes for each sex. The research report gives some suggestions on how to design these programmes. It is hoped that this will contribute towards controlling the spread of these diseases in Ghana as well as other sub-Saharan African countries.