Analysis of contemporary sexual behavior and assessment of youth knowledge about HIV infection and STIs

Background. Globally, the incidence of HIV infection among young people has declined over the past 30 years due to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis. However, the incidence of STIs in this population is declining at a much slower rate than HIV incidence. As a consequence, analyzing young people’s awareness of HIV and STIs is of particular importance for primary prevention.

Aims. To assess the specifics of sexual behavior and awareness among young people regarding STIs and HIV infection, as well as to study the attitude and degree of readiness to help HIV-infected patients among medical university students.

Methods. To assess the level of awareness on STI and HIV prevention and risky sexual behavior, a sociological survey was conducted through an anonymous questionnaire with the signing of voluntary anonymous consent. The respondents used a questionnaire consisting of 23 questions developed by the staff of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology of the Pavlov State Medical University, St. Petersburg. The Center for the Sociology of Deviancy and Social Control of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as adapted by the authors. The questionnaire consisted of two parts; the first part contained questions characterizing students’ knowledge of STI/HIV transmission routes and prevention methods. The second part of the questionnaire focused on students’ risky sexual behavior. Students’ attitudes towards HIV-positive people themselves were also assessed, using an adapted questionnaire based on the UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) model questionnaire. To identify the psychological features of the students, which may influence the behavior, the propensity to risk, the attitude towards the disease, the method of assessing the level of communicative tolerance of V.V. Boyko was used. The distribution of responses was analyzed for the entire population of respondents, a representative appropriate volume for each questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. The χ2 criterion and Student’s independent t-criterion were assessed. Statistical significance was set as p < 0.05.

Results. A total of 565 4th year NSMU students participated in the study which was conducted from 2022–2023: 312 people from the Faculty of Medicine, 172 people from the Faculty of Pediatrics, 18 people from the medical and preventive faculty, and 63 students from the Faculty of Dentistry. The results of the study demonstrated that the use of the Internet among young people as a source of information about STIs and HIV infection is becoming more popular year by year. The sexual behavior of the students participating in the study was characterized as risky. It was found that medical students (20.5%) experience fear of HIV infection when providing medical care to HIV-infected patients. The level of professional communicative tolerance of future physicians is assessed as high.

Conclusions. The low level of awareness among young people with regard to sexual health requires strengthening the implementation of existing activities on primary prevention of STIs and HIV infection, as well as the introduction of new preventive measures for these infections, adapted to the needs of young people.The ignorance of the legal aspects of providing care to HIV-infected patients, which was revealed in the course of the survey among medical students, requires more detailed study of these issues during the preparation of future doctors for professional activities.