Department of Health Promotion, School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
SAHARA J. 2021 Dec;18(1):170-182. doi: 10.1080/17290376.2021.2011390.
University students in Sudan are more at risk of contracting HIV than the general population, due to a high rate of sexual activity and low uptake of preventive measures such as condoms. Hence, they are considered an important target for HIV prevention programmes. This study explored students` beliefs about abstinence and pre-marital sex. Thirty semi-structured individual interviews were conducted, based on constructs from the Integrated Change (I-Change) Model. The study sample included 16 (53%) male and 14 (47%) female university students. Their average age was 21.2 years (Range 18-27 and SD 2.5). Both sexual abstainers ( = 19) and sexually active students ( = 11) perceived HIV severity and susceptibility. Most of the participants had a positive attitude towards abstinence. However, sexually active students also perceived some advantages of engaging in sexual practices, such as sexual pleasure and proving adulthood. Sexually active students more often mentioned being influenced in their sexual practices by their peers than by their families. Sexually active students reported lower self-efficacy to refrain from sex than abstainers. Interventions that seek to promote abstinence among those willing to achieve this should stress the advantages of abstinence from sex until marriage, offer tools to resist peer pressure and enhance self-efficacy to abstain. These findings can be used to develop comprehensive HIV prevention programmes that primarily promote abstinence among university students who are not yet sexually active but also consider promoting condom use and other safer-sex practices among those who are sexually active. These interventions should also be gender-sensitive to address the needs of both male and female students.
苏丹的大学生比普通人群更容易感染艾滋病毒，因为他们的性活动率高，而预防措施如避孕套的使用率低。因此，他们被认为是艾滋病毒预防计划的重要目标。本研究探讨了学生们对禁欲和婚前性行为的看法。研究样本包括 16 名（53%）男性和 14 名（47%）女性大学生。他们的平均年龄为 21.2 岁（范围 18-27，SD 2.5）。禁欲者（ = 19）和有性行为的学生（ = 11）都认为艾滋病毒的严重程度和易感性。大多数参与者对禁欲持积极态度。然而，有性行为的学生也认为进行性实践有一些好处，如性愉悦和证明成年。有性行为的学生比没有性行为的学生更常提到受到同龄人的影响，而不是家庭的影响。有性行为的学生报告的避免性行为的自我效能感低于禁欲者。旨在促进那些愿意禁欲的人禁欲的干预措施应该强调禁欲直到结婚的好处，提供抵制同龄压力的工具，并增强避免性行为的自我效能感。这些发现可以用来制定全面的艾滋病毒预防计划，主要促进那些还没有性行为的大学生禁欲，但也要考虑促进那些有性行为的大学生使用避孕套和其他安全性行为。这些干预措施也应该对性别敏感，以满足男女学生的需求。
