Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(1), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15010110
STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents
Frederik Tilmann von Rosen 1,2,†,*
, Antonella Juline von Rosen 1,2,†, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider 1,3, Inken Damberg 2 and Peter Tinnemann 1,4
, Antonella Juline von Rosen 1,2,†, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider 1,3, Inken Damberg 2 and Peter Tinnemann 1,41
Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, 10117 Berlin, Germany
2
Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
3
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117549, Singapore
4
Akademie für Öffentliches Gesundheitswesen, 40472 Düsseldorf, Germany
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 26 November 2017 / Revised: 18 December 2017 / Accepted: 19 December 2017 / Published: 10 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Teenage Reproductive Health: Pregnancy, Contraception, Unsafe Abortion, Fertility)
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Abstract
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to individual and public health. They disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed self-rated and factual STI knowledge in a sample of 9th graders in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Differences by age, gender, migrant background, and school type were quantified using bivariate and multivariable analyses. A total of 1177 students in 61 classes participated. The mean age was 14.6 (SD = 0.7), 47.5% were female, and 52.9% had at least one immigrant parent. Knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was widespread, but other STIs were less known. For example, 46.2% had never heard of chlamydia, 10.8% knew of the HPV vaccination, and only 2.2% were aware that no cure exists for HPV infection. While boys were more likely to describe their knowledge as good, there was no general gender superiority in factual knowledge. Children of immigrants and students in the least academic schools had lower knowledge overall. Our results show that despite their particular risk to contract an STI, adolescents suffer from suboptimal levels of knowledge on STIs beyond HIV. Urgent efforts needed to improve adolescent STI knowledge in order to improve the uptake of primary and secondary prevention. View Full-TextKeywords:
sexual health; sexually transmitted diseases; sexually transmitted infections; adolescent health; Berlin; Germany
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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von Rosen, F.T.; von Rosen, A.J.; Müller-Riemenschneider, F.; Damberg, I.; Tinnemann, P. STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 110.
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