KNOWLEDGE AND PREVENTIVE BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN PORT HARCOURT LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the knowledge and preventive behaviour towards sexually transmitted infections among secondary school students in Port HarcourtLocal Government Area of Rivers State. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Six research questions and four null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consisted of 4,264 public senior secondary school students in the area. Simple random sampling techniques was used to select a sample of 405 respondents for the study. A self-designed questionnaire titled “Knowledge and Preventive Behaviour towards Sexually Transmitted Infections Questionnaire’’ (KPBSTIQ) was used for data collection. The face and content validation of the instrument was done by two experts; one in Public Health Sciences, and another in Measurement and Evaluation. The instrument had a reliability coefficient of r=0.79 (79%). Frequency counts and simple percentage were used to answer research questions 1, 2, and 3 while mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions 4, 5 and 6. Chi-square was used to test hypotheses 1 and 2 while Independent t-test was used to test hypotheses 3 and 4 at 0.05 level of significance. That there was low level of knowledge and preventive behaviour towards sexually transmitted infections among secondary school students in Port Harcourt Local Government Area. Also, there was no significant association between gender (15.933, Df=2, p=.067), age (12.201, Df=4, p=.084) and knowledge about sexually transmitted infections among secondary school students in Port Harcourt Local Government Area. That there was no significant association between gender (p>0.071), age (p>0.099) and preventive behaviour of sexually transmitted infections among secondary school students in Port Harcourt Local Government Area. It was recommended among others that; health education lesson can act as an effective channel in creating awareness about Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). Therefore, there is a need for Health Education lesson to be sustained in the school.