Abstract
Objective: to assess the knowledge and practices of adolescent students in relation to HIV/AIDS and other STIs. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, which included twelve public schools from seven cities in Rio Grande do Norte, with a sample of 623 individuals. Two electronic and interactive questionnaires were used for data collection. Data processing was performed using SPSS 25.0® and Stata 14.0. For the analysis of associated factors, the Item Response Theory was used. The project of this study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Protocol No. 99473118.2.0000.5292. Results: The participants who achieved the highest means of knowledge level were female (6.04 ± 4.47), with a partner (6.13 ± 4.49), white (6.10 ± 4.46) and received financial assistance from the government (6.72 ± 4.40). Most teenagers reported that they had already had their first sexual intercourse. Of those who continued to have sex in the last 6 months, only 31.3% used a condom. Final considerations: Adolescents have a considerable level of knowledge about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, but their sexual practices do not follow the recommended preventive measures.
Highlights
Adolescence is a period of life marked by intense physical, psychological, social and cognitive changes (Neves et al, 2017)
It can be concluded that the present study obtained positive results regarding the evaluation of teenagers' knowledge about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, since most of the interviewees know the forms of transmission of these infections
Young people have acquired a satisfactory degree of knowledge, they insist on adopting unsafe sexual practices, especially about condom use, which decreases over the occurrence of sexual intercourse
Summary
Adolescence is a period of life marked by intense physical, psychological, social and cognitive changes (Neves et al, 2017). It is at this stage where basic patterns of behavior are established that will have repercussions throughout life, such as the beginning of sexual activities (Fonseca et al, 2018). The process of sexual education permeates several environments, such as family, social and school (Cabrera-García et al, 2018) In view of this scenario, the importance of sexual education in the school environment is emphasized, because this knowledge will enable the development of ethical values, making young people able to make healthy choices for themselves and their partners (Zompero et al, 2018)
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