Sex education and STI fatalism, testing and infection among young African American men who have sex with women

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the association between institution-delivered sex education given under real-world conditions and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates, STI fatalism, and prior STI testing among African American men aged 15–24 who have sex with women. Participants were tested at community venues for Chlamydia and gonorrhoea and undertook a survey to elicit history of sex education and sexual health information. Among 1196 participants, 73.0% reported having received institution-delivered sex education topics including STI information (90.5%), condoms (89.2%), pregnancy/birth (72.1%) and birth control (67.1%). Among a subset of participants asked about the quality of sex education, 85.7% reported it was ‘very good’ or ‘OK’. The prevalence rate for Chlamydia and/or gonorrhoea was 10.5%. Those who received sex education were more likely to have lower STI fatalism (51.0% vs. 42.4%, p = 0.01) and more likely to report previous Chlamydia screening (44.1% vs. 31.6%, p < 0.01), but did not have a significantly lower rate of Chlamydia and/or gonorrhoea (9.9% vs. 12.4%, p = 0.20) compared to those who did not receive sex education. These findings suggest that institution-delivered sex education given under real-world conditions has beneficial effects on STI risk factors among young African American men.