Sexual and reproductive health: Educating young adult freshmen on safe sex practice

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am grateful to Dr. Akiiki Bitalabeho and Ms. Jenae Logan, my supervisors who have guided
me through this process. I’m also so much grateful to Dr. Rex Wong who set the direction for
this study, and was of great help at every stage of executing this practicum project. His advice
made this practicum easier and every piece of it was of great value.
My classmates of the MGHD class of 2018 at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE)
have been awesome; it was an honor to attend class with you.
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ABSTRACT
Young adults are at great risk of sexual and reproductive health problems such as negative peer
influence, substance abuse, lack of enough sexual and reproductive knowledge, lack of access to
enough sexual and reproductive services including contraceptives like condoms, and a lack of an
environment that enables free expression on sexuality. Understanding the level of sexual and
reproductive health knowledge among young people contributes to the control and prevention of
negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes including the contraction of STIs/HIV/AIDS,
unwanted pregnancies, and unsafe abortion. It also reduces stigma around the utilization of
reproductive health services by young adults, and hence encourages open and free access to
contraceptive methods.
This study utilized a pre- and post- intervention design to assess the impact of sexual and
reproductive health education on the level of knowledge of safe sex practice among young adult
freshmen students of the academic year 2017/2018 of IPRC-South, Huye district, Rwanda. A
structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions was used to assess the knowledge level of
the participants both for the pre- and post intervention tests. Education on sexual and
reproductive health, but especially safe sex practice was offered to the participants as the
intervention for two weeks. Each class of study participants was taught for two hours on the
three topics of the questionnaire: HIV/STIs, Family planning and contraception and sex
practices. A hand out containing the correct answers to the questionnaire and other educational
materials used during the intervention were provided to the study participants.
Pre- and post- test scores were calculated, and descriptive statistics were used to present the
student demographic data using frequencies and percentages. Associations between respondents’
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gender, department, sexual activity and religion to the knowledge scores were assessed. All
statistical tests were conducted using Microsoft word Excel.
The study found the respondents’ overall average pre-intervention knowledge score of 65.4%,
which was low. However, the overall average knowledge increased to 83.8%, after the
intervention. It was observed that the study participants had high levels of sexual and
reproductive health knowledge on the sections of STIs/HIV/AIDS and Family planning &
contraception, but had poor knowledge on sex practices; which may be attributable to the lack of
consistent sexual and reproductive education programs for the young adults.
The study recommends consistent investment in sexual and reproductive education as it increases
sexual and reproductive knowledge, which in turn reduces negative sexual and reproductive
health outcomes such as unsafe abortion, unwanted pregnancies, contraction of STIs/HIV/AIDS
and others. It is important for the administration of IPRC-South to not only invest in consistent
education programs on sexual and reproductive health but also to consider investment in
students’ sexual and reproductive health in order to increase access to services, including access
to contraceptives like condoms, and free counseling and testing.