Sexual Behaviour and Sexually Transmitted Infections: Analysing the Vulnerability of Undergraduates in Brazil’s Federal District

Abstract

Introduction: There is no unified definition for risky sexual behaviour (RSB) to date. There is, however, a consensus idea that RSB can be conditioned by external factors that increase vulnerability to it. Objective: To question which vulnerability factors are most relevant to RSB in the undergraduate population. Methods: It´s a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Health area students of two universities were selected at random and invited through e-mail to answer a virtual questionnaire, previously approved by both institutions’ Research Ethics Committees. The questionnaire covered demographics and students’ sexual behavior aspects, among other topics. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics using relative and absolute frequencies. Results: From a total of 156 complete answers, 31 respondents were male, 106 were female, 19 did not answer, and the mean age was 21 years. From the sample, 23.71% (n=37) claimed to have had sexual relations over the last 12 months without preservative at the last sexual encounter. Among these, 75.67% (n=28) had more than ten sexual partners through their lives, 72.97% (n=27) had same-sex sexual relations, 67.56% (n=25) had sexual relations with individuals met online, 78.37% (n=29) used to ingest alcoholic beverages currently, 18.91% (n=6) smoked marijuana currently, and 8.1 (n=2) used amphetamine currently. Conclusion: The chosen definition for RSB was based on Gräff (2020), who described RSB as having more than one sexual partner over the last 12 months and absence of preservative at the last sexual encounter. The RSB group represented 23.71% of the total. The most relevant vulnerability factors to RSB were: more than ten sexual partners in life, same-sex sexual relations, sexual relations with individuals met online, and ingestion of alcoholic beverages currently. Results match the literature.