Risky Business in Student Dorms: Sexual Health and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Programming Imperative for College Campuses

Abstract

Copyright: © 2013 Reel JJ, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Not only do college students engage in high rates of risky sexual behaviors (American College Health Association, 2010), but multiple studies e.g. [1] have shown that college students are vulnerable for developing sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For example [1] surveyed 688 college students and found that 77% of students were sexually experienced. Other studies have found that between 50% and 80% of college students are sexually active [1,2] with 25% of female students and 60% of male students engaging in casual sex [1,2]. Furthermore, the 2003 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey found that 34% of college students reported having 6 or more sex partners in their lifetime, and only 30% of students reported using a condom during their last sexual intercourse [1]. The National College Health Assessment (NCHA) [3] also found low rates of consistent condom use. Alarmingly, less than half of the sexually active students responded that they “always or mostly” used condoms during sexual intercourse (American College of Health Association [4].