Prevalence of RTI/STI among Adolescent Married Women in India: A Study on Reproductive Health Perspective

Abstract

The objective of this study is to study the Knowledge about RTIs/STIs among adolescent married women, Prevalence of RTIs/STIs and treatment seeking behavior among adolescent women. The present study has tried to look into various factors that might have contributed to adolescent women (age 15-19 years) risk of exposure to RTIs/STIs. Data from DLHS-RCH SURVEY-II (2002-2004)-Reproductive and child health Project was used for analyses. Statistical analysis was performed by means of SPSS. Bivariate tables with respect to the percentage of awareness of RTIs/STIs and prevalence of RTIs/STIs according to background variables was prepared. Logistic regression analysis has been applied to find out the probability of a women exposed to the risk of RTIs/STIs according to background variables. It was found that RTIs/STIs is a common problem among married adolescent women in India. The knowledge about RTIs/STIs is much higher among literate adolescent women (41 percent) in comparison to illiterate adolescent women (33 percent) in India. There are no rural-urban differences in knowledge of RTIs/STIs. Seventy-nine percent of married adolescent reported that they have heard about RTIs/STIs through friends and relatives. Study also reveals that there exists high prevalence of upper tract infection, lower tract infection and any RTIs/STIs infection among adolescent women in India. Prevalence of RTIs/STIs is higher in west region (41 percent) and lowest in south region of India (14 percent). It is found that there is high prevalence of upper tract infection among adolescent women. Treatment seeking behaviour among adolescent women is very low. Only 20 percent adolescent women in India are seeking treatment for RTIs/STIs infection. It is evident from the result that there exists a high prevalence of upper tract, lower tract and any RTIs/STIs infection among adolescent women in India