Do our Advanced Level students have satisfactory knowledge and attitudes related to contraception?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES: Advanced level (AIL) students, shortly leaving school to a new life, are older than 16 years, the legal age to consent for sexual activities. Inadequate knowledge on contraception can lead to unprotected sex and serious negative effects including teenage pregnancies, criminal abortions and sexually transmitted diseases. We aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes on contraception among AIL students in Gampaha educational zone and selected factors associated. METHODS: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 275 A/L students attending Gampaha tuition classes, selected using a multistage sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was used. Knowledge and attitudes were analyzed using descriptive statistics and knowledge of different sub groups were compared using one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: A total of 277 (Male; 118,42.6%; Female; 159,57.4%) participated in the study. Knowledge was low for all methods; Pills (M=l .4, SD=1.7, Max=7), condoms (M=l.4; SD=1.2; Max=4), injectables (M=0.4;SD=0.8;Max=7), emergency methods (M=0.8;SD=0.9;Max=4), permanent methods (M=1.0; SD=1.0; Max=3). Male students (F=30.34;p<0.001) and Biology streams students (F=130.42;p<0.001) displayed significantly higher knowledge than others. Majority showed positive attitudes towards use, even though 16.7% (n=46; N=275) thought using contraceptives is a sin and 16.2% (n=44;N=272) stated their use would depend on the partner. The majority (76.7%;n=214;N=274) thought contraceptives should be taught in school. For all methods (N=545), social media was the commonest source of knowledge (n=95, 17.4%) and parents were the least common (n=16,2.9%). CONCLUSION: The level of knowledge was unsatisfactory even though majority displayed positive attitudes towards contraception. Social media can be effectively used to address the knowledge gap.