Gemechu Kejela *,Bikila Soboka
Background:Sexually transmitted infections are a major global cause of acute illness, infertility; long-term disability especially in women and children. In Ethiopia, Sexually transmitted infections are among the top five disease for which child bearing age group and adult seek medical care. However, information with regard to knowledge, attitude and practice towards STI is limited in our country.
Objective:To assess Knowledge, Attitude and Preventive Practice towards sexually transmitted infection among preparatory school students, in Shone Town, SNNPR, Ethiopia, 2014.
Methodology:Institution based cross sectional quantitative study was conducted among 982 students in Shone preparatory school. The sample size was calculated by using single population proportion and stratified sampling method was used to get the study subjects. Finally the collected data was analyzed by SPSS 20 version.
Results:Almost all the students had heard about STIs before the interview. They had good knowledge regarding to mode of transmission, prevention method of STIs and others in the study group. Only 15.18% had negative attitude towards STIs. Among the respondents 42.20% didn’t agreed with the idea that having history of STIs increase acquisition of HIV/AIDs and 27.70% had not agreed with condom can prevent STIs.41.25% had practiced sexual intercourse while, 1.60% of them had practiced with commercial sex workers and 71.20% who had sexual intercourse had used condom. On bivariate analysis only knowledge about STI shows significant association with attitude of students towards STI prevention, with those who had poor knowledge about STI were more likely to develop negative attitude towards STI prevention than those who had good knowledge about STI (OR 3.65, [95% CI 1.44 to 9.30]).
Awareness about STIs and methods of prevention of STIs was high. Generally the level of knowledge towards prevention of STIs were high despite half of them had negative attitude towards STIs can cause social stigma and discrimination. Based on the results, the following recommendations were made. The link between STIs and HIV/AIDS should be reinforced. Emphasizing that STIs increase the likelihood of HIV transmission may increase people’s concern about STIs and lead to less risky behavior. Our investigation call for continued and strengthened health education to bring and promote positive attitude and behavioral changes among the students in shone town.
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