18. SOSHI-APE: Sources of Sexual Health Information for Adolescents and Preferences for Education

Abstract

<h3>Background</h3> Adolescents may receive information about sexual health topics from a variety of different sources, such as school, family, healthcare professionals, peers, and media sources such as television, books, and the internet. Despite this variety, there is little information on where adolescents actually do receive information on these topics. The objective of this study was to identify the sources from which adolescents receive information about sexual health topics, how useful they find this information, and their preferred sources for education. <h3>Methods</h3> We conducted a survey of adolescents aged 14-21 about the sources from which they received sexual health information. Adolescents were recruited through online and in-person advertising at an adolescent-specific obstetrics and gynecology clinic. Descriptive statistics were calculated using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) v25.0. This study was approved by the Western Institutional Review Board #2017-030. <h3>Results</h3> The survey was completed by 196 adolescents. The average age of respondents was 16.0 years, 82.1% identified as female, and respondents were racially diverse (Table 1). School was the most common source of information on almost all sexual health topics: STIs (67.9%), condoms (50.5%), sex (40.8%), consent (40.3%), abortion (34.7%), pregnancy (33.7%), and birth control (32.7%), with the exception of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues, which respondents most commonly learned about from friends (24.5%). Parents and friends were also reported as highly common sources of sexual health information (Figure 1). Information about sex was much less commonly obtained from media sources, although the internet was one of the main sources of information about LGBTQ issues (10.2%) and abortion (9.7%). Across all topics, respondents rated the information that they received to be somewhat or very useful (75-85.7%). The main sources from which respondents would have preferred to receive information were school, healthcare professionals, or parents, with the exception of LGBTQ issues, which they would have preferred to learn about from school, parents, or friends. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The results of this descriptive study suggest that adolescents receive most of their information about sexual health from school, parents, or friends, with the exception of LGBTQ issues and abortion. The accuracy of information from family, friends, and the internet may vary and adolescents should be made aware of this. Although healthcare professionals were an uncommon source of sexual health information, respondents identified them as one of their main preferred sources. These findings indicate a need for more education on sexual health topics during healthcare encounters.