Investigating the Knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in University Students of Iran

Unprotected sex, multi partnership, no or inconsistent use of the condom can be mentioned as risk behaviors putting youth at high risk to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). The present study aimed to investigate the knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases in the university students of Shahroud in Iran.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shahroud city of Iran. 1500 female and male students in the age bracket of 18-24 were included in the study. Multistage sampling was employed. After stating the objective of the study, the questionnaire was distributed to students during the end of lecture time upon the agreement of the education officials and collected after 15 minutes. To ensure that the information provided will be kept confidential, the students were asked not to write down their names and fields of study. Data were described using descriptive statistics by SPSS software, version 20.

The answers showed that the female and male students have heard more about HIV (94.9% vs. 93.1%), gonorrhea (47.2% vs. 50.2%), genital herpes (45.6% vs. 33.1%), and genital warts (31.4% vs. 18.1%), in the order of frequency. 35.9% of females had no knowledge about the symptoms of diseases in women and 53% of males had no knowledge about the symptoms of the diseases in men. 26.6% of female students and 16% of male students knew regarding at least three symptoms of diseases.

The present study showed that the university students' knowledge is far distant from the desired situation. This study succeeded in identifying the educational needs of the youth.