KNOWLEDGE OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS AMONG UNDERGRADUATES OF UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge of sexually transmitted infections (STI's) among undergraduates of university of Benin. Four research questions were formulated and evaluated in this study. Related literature were reviewed. The descriptive survey research was adopted in this study. The target population for this study consist of undergraduates of the University of Benin located in the capital of Edo state, Nigeria. The population included only all the fulltime undergraduate students of the university of Benin across the 15 faculties, from all the departments in each of the facilities. The current population of the undergraduate fulltime students is about 43,862. The sample size for this study was 100 respondents. This was drawn by first using simple random sampling technique to select 5 faculties of the 15 faculties in the University. In the second step, a simple random sampling was used to select twenty (20) undergraduates from each of the selected five (5) faculties. The research instrument that was used to solicit the desired information from the respondent for this study was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by the researcher's supervisor and two other experts in the department of Health, Safety and Environmental Education. The test-retest method was adopted to ascertain the reliability of the instrument which involve the administration of the instrument to twenty (20) respondents within a two week interval who were not part of the study. After the two administrations, data collected was computed using Microsoft excel. The questionnaires were administered to the 100 respondents and retrieved immediately after completion to ascertain consistency. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage for the research questions raised. The research revealed that the undergraduates of university of benin had a good knowledge of STIs. They showed good knowledge in different areas of STIs and perceived the seriousness of STIs. The research also revealed that the age range of 15-20 have high knowledge of sexually transmitted infection and their age does not influence their knowledge on sexually transmitted infection. The study also proved that religious affiliation had a significant influence on the knowledge of sexually transmitted infection. Finally, the research also revealed that males had more knowledge than females, as well as young people had more knowledge than adults. Base on the findings of the study, it was recommended that students need to be more informed in many areas concerning the knowledge of STIs. There should be a discussion on making the knowledge of sexually transmitted infections educations a part of the obligatory school curricula to ensure that young people receive correct information on STIs.