Preventive Behavior of Sexually Transmitted Disease among Vocational College Students in Kalasin Province

Abstract

          A cross-sectional analytic study was conducted, the aimed of the study were to assess preventive behaviors and analyze factors related to preventive behaviors of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among vocational college students in Kalasin province. Approximately 281 respondents collected data through a questionnaire in January 2021. Descriptive statistics including frequency distribution, percentages, mean and standard deviations were applied to analyze the data. Chi-Square statistic was used for testing the hypothesis.

The results revealed that 44.48% of students had a high level of knowledge about STDs. Approximately 86.12% had a moderate level of attitude toward STDs prevention and approximately 77.94% had a moderate level of the health belief model in STDs prevention and 59.79% had a moderate level of behavior in the prevention of STDs. By analyzing factors related to student behavior in the prevention of STDs, it was found that gender and education were statistically significant at the 0.05 level.

Although vocational college students had a high level of knowledge, but there were still some behaviors that increase the risk of contracting STDs, such as using objects or devices during sexual intercourse, not cleaning their genitals after intercourse, etc. It was clear that students had not paid sufficient attention to the prevention of STDs. Therefore, there should be continued and comprehensive implementation of sexuality education programs to enhance the specific knowledge of students. This would contribute to fostering positive attitudes towards preventing sexually transmitted diseases and lead to appropriate and responsible behaviors. In this way, we can effectively prevent problems that may arise for individuals, families and society as a whole.