Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Jan 10;15(1):110. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15010110.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to individual and public health. They disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed self-rated and factual STI knowledge in a sample of 9th graders in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Differences by age, gender, migrant background, and school type were quantified using bivariate and multivariable analyses. A total of 1177 students in 61 classes participated. The mean age was 14.6 (SD = 0.7), 47.5% were female, and 52.9% had at least one immigrant parent. Knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was widespread, but other STIs were less known. For example, 46.2% had never heard of chlamydia, 10.8% knew of the HPV vaccination, and only 2.2% were aware that no cure exists for HPV infection. While boys were more likely to describe their knowledge as good, there was no general gender superiority in factual knowledge. Children of immigrants and students in the least academic schools had lower knowledge overall. Our results show that despite their particular risk to contract an STI, adolescents suffer from suboptimal levels of knowledge on STIs beyond HIV. Urgent efforts needed to improve adolescent STI knowledge in order to improve the uptake of primary and secondary prevention.
性传播感染（STIs）对个人和公共健康构成重大威胁。它们不成比例地影响青少年和年轻人。在一项横断面研究中，我们评估了德国柏林 13 所中学的 9 年级学生样本中的自我评估和实际 STI 知识。使用双变量和多变量分析量化了年龄、性别、移民背景和学校类型的差异。共有 61 个班级的 1177 名学生参加了研究。平均年龄为 14.6（标准差=0.7），47.5%为女性，52.9%的学生至少有一位移民父母。对人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）的了解较为广泛，但其他 STI 则知之甚少。例如，46.2%的人从未听说过衣原体，10.8%的人知道 HPV 疫苗，只有 2.2%的人知道 HPV 感染目前无法治愈。尽管男孩更有可能描述自己的知识为良好，但在实际知识方面并没有普遍的性别优势。移民子女和学业水平较低学校的学生总体知识水平较低。我们的研究结果表明，尽管青少年感染 STI 的风险特别高，但他们对 HIV 以外的 STI 的知识水平仍不理想。为了提高青少年 STI 知识水平，需要紧急努力，以改善初级和二级预防措施的推广。
