Milazzo Mariah, Parwatkar Kalyani, Perelmuter Sara, Blackman Camille, Tomaszewski Alicja, Williams Annika, Rubin Rachel S, Lufler Rebecca S
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA United States.
St George's University School of Medicine, West Indies, Grenada.
J Sex Med. 2024 Dec 1;21(12):1131-1136. doi: 10.1093/jsxmed/qdae132.
Sexual health is an imperative area of study in medical school education, yet many medical schools do not offer a comprehensive curriculum nor is it standardized across the United States (US).
This study aims to assess written curriculum materials from sexual health curricula in medical schools across the northeast region of the US and compare the current teachings to suggested standards.
A compilation of academic resources including lecture materials and syllabi were systematically reviewed utilizing a standardized and validated rubric with variables assessed including: biological and psychological aspects of human sexual development, anatomy and physiology of the human sexual response cycle, sexual health in relation to human reproduction, and contraceptive options. We analyzed our data from the document analysis to look at the frequency of inclusion and exclusion of the sexual health topics included in our rubric.
The outcomes of our data set were in line with our hypothesis that there is significant variance between sexual health curricula across institutions as well as an overall lack in material covering sexual health topics.
The data show significant sex specific differences such that male-specific topics were covered more frequently than female-specific information. Additionally, only one of the 10 schools examined taught about vulvar conditions. There was also a paucity of information about sexuality in the post-partum period.
The clinical implications of this study aim to highlight the discrepancy between an ideal sexual health curriculum and what is actually being taught in medical schools and help to guide future work of creating a comprehensive and standardized sexual medicine education in US. medical schools.
The validity of this study was strengthened by analyzing direct curricula materials as opposed to previous use of subjective, self-reported questionnaires. However, the sample location being restricted to the Northeast was a limitation to generalize findings across the country. Future studies would aim to analyze medical school curricula across different regions in the US.
This study shows that there is a lack of comprehensive and standardized sexual health curriculum in medical schools in the Northeastern US and serves as initial evidence for further investigation of this topic across American medical schools.
性健康是医学院校教育中一个至关重要的研究领域，但许多医学院校并未提供全面的课程，且在美国也未实现标准化。
本研究旨在评估美国东北地区医学院校性健康课程的书面教材，并将当前的教学内容与建议标准进行比较。
利用标准化且经过验证的评分标准，对包括讲座材料和教学大纲在内的学术资源汇编进行系统审查，评估的变量包括：人类性发育的生物学和心理学方面、人类性反应周期的解剖学和生理学、与人类生殖相关的性健康以及避孕选择。我们对文件分析的数据进行分析，以查看评分标准中所包含的性健康主题的纳入和排除频率。
我们数据集的结果与我们的假设一致，即各机构的性健康课程之间存在显著差异，且总体上缺乏涵盖性健康主题的材料。
数据显示出明显的性别差异，男性特定主题的涵盖频率高于女性特定信息。此外，在接受检查的10所学校中，只有一所学校讲授了外阴疾病。产后性方面的信息也很匮乏。
本研究的临床意义旨在突出理想的性健康课程与医学院校实际教学内容之间的差异，并有助于指导美国医学院校创建全面且标准化的性医学教育的未来工作。
与以往使用主观的自我报告问卷不同，本研究通过分析直接的课程材料增强了有效性。然而，样本地点仅限于东北部是一个局限性，限制了研究结果在全国范围内的推广。未来的研究旨在分析美国不同地区的医学院校课程。
本研究表明，美国东北部的医学院校缺乏全面且标准化的性健康课程，并为在美国医学院校进一步研究这一主题提供了初步证据。
