Conhecimento dos adolescentes sobre doenças sexualmente transmissíveis.

Abstract

The knowledge concerning STD is a relevant theme for public health, as adolescents who early start their sexual activities may be exposing themselves to sexually transmitted diseases due to the lack of knowledge concerning adequate protection. In the adolescence, classmates and peers play an important role and sexuality is more exacerbated. The adolescents may experience unsafe sexual practices because of the fact they do not have information, the lack of communication with the family and even the existence of taboos or due to the fear of assuming having had sex before the family. The purpose of the present study was toassess the knowledge of adolescents concerning sexually transmitted diseases. It is a descriptive, observational, survey-like study on quantitative aspects, with a convenience sample carried out during the month of July 2014 with 532 adolescents between 10 and 19 years old enrolled in the school year of 2014 at the Colégio Municipal Pelotense in the city of Pelotas/RS. The self-administered, anonymous and pre-coded questionnaire was individually applied at a classroom at the aforementioned school. The analysis was carried out using the STATA 11.1 program. As variáveis idade, sexo, número de parceiros no último ano e idade da primeira relação foram descritas por média e desvio padrão. The categorical variables were described by absolute and relative frequencies and the chi-quare or Fischer’s Exact tests were used to assess the association between the categorical variables. The project was approved by the Nursing School Ethics Committee from the Federal University of Pelotas upon Opinion 702.277. The results point out that 89,2% of the girls and 90,3% of the boys knew how to properly define a concept of STD; 78,0%of the girls and 89,3% of the boys had some knowledge concerning which diseases were STD; the most often mentioned diseases by the adolescents were AcquiredImmunodeficiency Syndrome; Herpes; Gonorrhea; Human Papilloma Virus; Syphilis and Viral Hepatitis; for 26,3% of the girls and 37,1% of the boys the knowledge concerning the fat that STD are curable is adequate; in terms of the contamination forms, 38,1% of the girls and 44,8% of the boys knew the adequate contamination forms; 69,4% of the girls and 44,5% of the boys talked about sexuality with theirmothers and the school is mentioned by 60,4% of the girls and 54,3% of the boys as a source of information about STD. For 98,5% of the girls and 98,9% of the boys the use of condom is the most efficient method to prevent STD. However, 37,1% of the girls and 30,5% of the boys mentioned the use contraceptive as a preventive method. Thus, carrying out educational activities at the school by qualified professionals may provide the adolescents a better knowledge on themes such as sexuality and reproductive health including knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases and the proper way to prevent them.