Perfis de vulnerabilidades e prevalência de comportamentos de risco para DST/HIV/AIDS: estudo com adolescentes de Escolas Públicas de Montes Claros Minas Gerais, Brasil 2008/2009

Abstract

BACKGROUND: boys and girls are starting their sexual activity at an earlier age, and sexual practices among young people have been described as dynamic and in constant changes, with significant impact on their sexual and reproductive lives. OBJECTIVES: 1) to assess knowledge about modes of transmission and prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS; 2) to determine the prevalence of risk behavior factors and 3) to outline the profiles of adolescents vulnerabilities. METHODS: this is a cross-sectional study with a random sample defined in two times. The final sample included 775 adolescents from eleven public schools in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brasil. The adolescents answered a self-administered questionnaire related to Behavior, Attitude andPractice model. Data was collected between 2008 and 2009 and analyzed into a database SPSS package. RESULTS: there was a predominance of females (73.2%), aged up to 17 years (89.1%). Most were enrolled in primary education (73.1%); were living with both parents (51.7%) and practice the catholic religion (55.8%). Sexual experience was reported by 34.8%, that 57.2% was boys and 26.6% was girls (p <0.001). The average age of first sexual intercourse was 14.2 (SD: 1.9); 13.5 for boys and 14.7 for girls (p <0.001). Among girls, 42.1% had their first sexual intercourse before 14 years of age and among boys theproportion was 69.7% (p = 0.001). The prevalence of condom use in the first intercourse was 66.1% and 67.7% for boys and girls, respectively (p = 0.684). In the last intercourse was 71.8% vs 45.4% (p <0.001) and regular use also was higher among boys, 60.6% vs 41.4% (p = 0.007). The reasons most often cited by girls for not using condoms were dislike and trust in partner (35.1%). The boys mentioned other and dislike in 45.0% and 39.0% times, respectively. As to knowledge about STD/HIV/AIDS, 74.6% of adolescents exceeded the average score of correct answers. CONCLUSION: the results shows substantial differences between boys and girls with regard to sexual behaviorand girls were found more vulnerable to injure in sexual and reproductive health than boys. Thus, gender differences should be always taken into consideration when formulating strategies to promote sexual and reproductive health.