Our study was designed as a cross-sectional survey of general and high-level knowledge on STDs in students currently enrolled in the nursing programme at the Department for Biomedical Sciences, University Centre Varaždin, University North in Croatia. A total of 247 students from the first, second and third year of a bachelor nursing study programme participated in this study. Nurses’ knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases was evaluated using a pre-coded and pre-tested, anonymous self-administered survey which consisted of three sections: (a) basic student and demographic information, (b) Sexually Transmitted Disease Knowledge Questionnaire (STD-KQ) (Supplemental file 1), and (c) Sexually Transmitted Disease High-Level Knowledge Questionnaire …show more content…
STD-KQ was developed by Jaworski and Carey in 2006 for measuring young adults’ knowledge of six STDs – gonorrhoea, chlamydia, genital herpes, hepatitis B, HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV). STD-HL-KQ was designed for this study in order to explore knowledge on the STDs not covered by the STD-KQ (namely genital mycoplasmas, syphilis, molluscum contagiosum, Trichomonas vaginalis and pubic lice) and to assess high-level knowledge and multifaceted understanding of STDs. Both questionnaires consisted of 27 items …show more content…
To avert the participants from guessing, they were instructed to select “I don’t know” option if they were unsure of the correct answer. Both questionnaires included more false than true statements, since asking participants to reject a false statement has been shown to provide better knowledge discrimination [6]. A knowledge summary score was computed by assigning one point for each correct response and zero points for incorrect, empty and “I don't know” responses. Points were summed to create a knowledge summary score. On the day of data collection, all nursing students present were requested to participate in the study. During the data collection process, the students were asked to fill in the questionnaire individually, without asking or looking at their colleagues’ answers. Participants filled the questionnaires and returned them to the investigators on the same day. The knowledge test section was marked and obtained scores of individual participants were entered into the computer for subsequent
In order to assess the degree to which STI was associated with multiple demographic, sexual and behavioural variables, Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated. Chi-square analyses were conducted during
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are one of the most common and preventable health care problems in the world. The ageism of the population and the increase in the number of older adults, along with healthcare advances that provide better and longer quality of life, has encourage changes in sexuality amongst older adults. This increase has prompted healthcare workers to familiarize themselves with the sexuality of older adults. In this report, I plan to discuss the significance of this topic, the concern for the public, and interventions that can be implemented from a Community Health Nurse prospective.
Sexually transmitted infections are a very current, modern day health care issue. These infections are passed during unprotected genital, anal or oral sex. There are sometimes symptoms of the various infections however there are some infections that can also be symptom free and therefore can go undetected for quite some time. Young people in the UK typically aged 15-24 have the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections. There is a link between this age group and those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, suggesting these particular regions need better and easier access to healthcare services in order to detect, treat and avoid further spreading and damage caused by the infections. Raising awareness of the causes of each infection and symptoms is vital. The most common types of infections are: Chlamydia, Genital herpes and warts, gonorrhea,
Over one million cases of Chlamydia were reported to the CDC in 2013. Despite this large number of reports it actually was a decrease by 1.5% since 2012 (CDC, 2014). Epidemiology statistics showed an increase in reported syphilis, including congenital. Other sexually transmitted diseases can pose higher risks for acquiring HIV. According to new studies, HIV is growing faster in populations that are over 50 versus 40 years and younger (BenRose, 2014). Factors may play a role in this such as higher divorce rates, new medications, and safe sex measures. Therefore, it is important for the healthcare provider screen for sexual activity and any change in sexual partners to provide routine testing when necessary and education on preventive
Sexually transmitted diseases (STD)/sexually transmitted infections (STI) including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to plague the nation. The most common forms of STDs are chlamydia and gonorrhea. Adolescents and young adults are ill-informed about STDs and its tell-tale signs. Thus, the most affected age group for chlamydia and gonorrhea is 15-24-year-olds. Young adults are most vulnerable for acquiring an STD, especially African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans compared with whites (healtypeople.gov).
Thirdly, If one has an STD and its publicly known, that individual's social status is degraded and negatively affected. In society as a whole concealing an STD creates a false sense of security and attempts to preserve a faulty self image. Along with merely keeping an STD a secret many are too embarrassed to even get tested after unprotected sex with a mentality that what they do not know will not hurt them. This alone has a major sociological implication as it reinforces a negative social construct and creates a poor symbolic representation of STD testing to displeasure rather than emotional relief. In order to influence the proper usage of regular testing after practicing unsafe sex it must be shown that the alternative leads to social distress in that untested individual live their days without knowledge of major health issues where untested STDs cannot be treated causing visual displeasure such as unexplained skin lesions that may influence one to be self conscious progressing to sickness and self
College campuses have seen a rise, in the epidemic of Sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases have quickly become a household name amongst Americans. The dangers and health issues related to acquiring a STD has been the reason why more attention has been brought to the STD epidemic. The reason for this attention is to hopefully, slow down the rate of STD’S amongst students. There is a very astonishing fact stated by the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center, “Nearly 80% percent of people that are infected with STD’s do not know it. ("Agape Pregnancy Resource Center") The use of condoms, knowing your status, and the practice of abstinence are very effective ways of avoiding contracting STD’s. If we do not make students
Some 110 million Americans have an STD at any given time. With 50 percent of new STD cases involving persons aged 15-24(CDC), it's clear to see that there is a problem with prevention of these Infections. With having an STD, it puts people at more risk to get the HIV virus, which is not curable at this time (STD Facts). Showing that people who haven't contracted an STD are less likely to preform risky sex behavior.
Over 15 million STD’s are contracted in the U.S. each year (Koumans et al., 2005). Over one one-fifth of these cases involve two of the most commonly known STDs: chlamydia and gonorrhea (Koumans et al., 2005) Unfortunately, most of the individuals who get infected with these diseases fall into the age range of 15-24 years old (Koumans et al., 2005). According to Wyatt & Oswalt (2014), almost half of all STD’s contracted each year are by young people ages 15-24 years old. Moreover, the data shows that, “45% of herpes infections, 70% of gonorrhea infections, 63% of chlamydia infections, and 49% of HPV infections occur among youth between the ages of 15-24 years” (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2014). Given that many college students are between the ages of 18-24 years, it is important that schools focus on educating students about the risk of
The more frequent occurrence of STDs in the younger generations are also based upon the multiple barriers in retrieving the benefits in STD prevention services which includes the lack of health insurance or inability to pay, no transportation, embarrassment of the services in the facilities, and worries of discretion. (STDs) According to the US Department of Health and Human Service, twenty five percent of sexually active adolescents have already obtained an STD. (Parillo) The severity of the issue is approached with the control strategies and educational strategies. In which these educational strategies are more effective when it involves a big health educational program that is provided to our minors. The young populations that are particularly affected by STDs are the young women with a low income for it is easier for a female to receive an STD compared to men. And with those women having a low income, they are not able to access the services that are being provided to them. Today, four in ten sexually active adolescent girls have obtained an STD that can cause infertility and death; also two thirds of adolescent boys have HIV diagnoses.
Even though highly trained nursing personnel plays a pivotal role in the identification and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in clinical and public health practice, the research on their knowledge is practically non-existent. In order to evaluate general knowledge and to probe high-level knowledge of STDs, 247 university students attending the undergraduate nursing programme filled two questionnaires: 27-item Sexually Transmitted Disease Knowledge Questionnaire (STD-KQ) and 27-item Sexually Transmitted Disease High-Level Knowledge Questionnaire (STD-HL-KQ). Average age of a participants was 25.36 years (SD = 2.39), ranging from 19 to 50 years of age. General knowledge determined by STD-KQ was satisfactory with an average overall
What are Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's)? How much do you know about STD's? Do you know how to protect yourself from STD's? The answer to these questions is that most people don't know, and if they do, it's very little. Sex has become a big issue in the 90's. Wherever a person looks, sex is advertised. What do you see when you turn on the television, daytime or night? Sex. What do you see when you go to the movies? Sex. In magazines? Sex. Even advertisements in the street revolve around sex. The one thing that is not emphasized is the dangers of sex. The danger of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. I'm sure that people know that AIDS is the most dangerous STD right now, but there are
According to the Department of health (DOH) (2013), people should know and understand how to protect their sexual health but also know how to access the appropriate services. This assignment will discuss factors that may have an effect on an individual’s sexual health such as education, the socio-economic and cultural environment; how the behaviour and lifestyle choices can have an impact on health and the consequences it may have within our society. It will also discuss the importance of the nurse’s role in promoting the health and wellbeing of all individuals and reducing health
The night before the clinical, I have tried my best to learn as much as I can about the nurse’s role in the care of pediatric patient in a public health setting; immunization, patient interaction, and patient education. So, after learning that I would spend most of my day at the women’s health clinic, particularly at the sexually transmittable disease unit, I was disappointed. However, as the day went along and after observing the first patient testing procedure, this clinical assignment does not seem so bad after all. I have observed four different sexually transmitted disease cases, each one different from the other, but every patient seemed to have similarities in terms of their risks taking behaviors. Indeed, it was interesting to note that some patient are repeatedly seen at the clinic, without any alteration to that kind of behavior. Moreover, the patient seen at the clinic that day, coming from a very diverse demographic, engaging in activities that detrimental
Sexually transmitted diseases are known as STDs or STIs, which stands for sexually transmitted infections. STDs and STIs are infectious diseases that spread from person to person through intimate contact. STDs affect guys and girls of all ages and backgrounds who are having sex, including oral and anal sex, and having skin to skin contact with an infected area or sore. Common STDs include Genital Herpes, Genital Warts, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, B, and C.