Abstract
This study aimed to identify and compare psychosocial and behavioral factors associated to STD/AIDS risk among students enrolled in the first and last years of the Nursing and Medical Undergraduate Programs at State University of Londrina. A convenience sample was selected from 263 enrolled students, and the 183 students who were sexually active (70.4%) had their data assessed. The Aids Risk Reduction Model framework was used to design the questionnaire in which a 5% statistical significance level was considered. Some risk factors were identified such as the perception of invulnerability, multiple sexual partners, consumption of alcoholic beverages before intercourse, and the discontinuous use or no use of condom. The risk factors are common both to the freshman and senior students, with no significant differences related to the passage of time or to the students' higher educational level. Senior students tend to be monogamous which makes them feel safer and decrease the use of condom with their sexual partners.
Highlights
This study aimed to identify psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and AIDS among health students
The knowledge of psychosocial and behavioral factors associated to the risk of STD/ AIDS is extremely important to identify this population’s current stage of preparation to deal with people vulnerable to these diseases
What are the psychosocial and behavioral factors related to the risk of STD/AIDS among health students, especially those from Nursing and Medical undergraduate courses? Do these factors differ between first and last-year students from each course? Did the contents, personal and group experiences provided by university life contribute to any change in the psychosocial and behavioral factors, to the extent that fifth-year students are in a different phase than firstyear students?. In view of these questions, this study proposed the following objectives: identify and compare the psychosocial and behavioral factors associated to the risk of infection by HIV or other STD among first and last-year students from the Nursing and Medical undergraduate courses at UEL
Summary
This study aimed to identify psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and AIDS among health students. This group of future professionals will directly or indirectly intervene in educative actions linked to these diseases. The political, economic and social impact of STD/AIDS is of great importance in underdeveloped and developing countries because it is the cause of great morbidity among women between 15 and 44 years old[1]. There has been a decline in STD rates, despite an estimated 12 million cases per year for the United States[2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 40 million adults and children were living with HIV until the end of 2001, one third of whom are young people between 15 and 24 years old[3]
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