Discussion Post: Sex Education and STI Transmission in Adolescents

Topic/Identified: High rate of spread of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents

Research Question: Does the involvement of nurses and innovative technology in sex education affect the efficiency of the interventions to reduce the rate of spread of STIs among adolescents?

Literature Review

In the study on the interventions that can effectively reduce the risk of the rapid spread of STIs among adolescents, a literature review was undertaken by studying articles from databases such as PubMed, PsyNet, and ERIC. The search aimed to find studies that took a qualitative, quantitative, and mixed approach to the topic. The high spread of STIs influenced the study in adolescents attributed to a lack of sufficient sex education, especially on the knowledge of the dangers and preventive measures concerning STIs.

In a study published in 2021, Pavelov et al. studied the need for involving a community nurse at the school level to facilitate sex education in adolescents. The methodology involved 438 adolescents between 12-15 years in Slovakia (Pavelov et al., 2021). A nurse used a questionnaire to collect quantitative data analyzed using SPSS to determine the level of need and acceptance of a nurse as a provider of sex education. The results indicated an overall need for a community or school nurse to facilitate sex education. However, they observed that the acceptance and the need were higher among girls than boys.

Another study was carried out in 2021 in Austria by Seiler-Ramadas et al. on the level of awareness of STIs among adolescents. The study was a qualitative analysis of the need for sex education in schools. The results cited stigma and fear of embarrassment as obstacles to sex education in Austria. In their findings, the most proposed ways of introducing sex education included the use of excursions and discussions among students (Seiler-Ramadas et al., 2021). However, there was a need for a more practical approach to increasing the spread of sex education.

In 2020, Pastchen et al. studied the effects of sexually Active Adolescent-Focused Education in spreading sexual education. They targeted African American adolescents greatly affected by the rise in infections despite a decline in teen pregnancies. They used a mixed-method approach design and concluded that the intervention was promising. Participants found the approach both entertaining and educative. The game-based intervention had the potential to satisfy the inadequacy in sex education.

 References

Patchen, L., Ellis, L., Ma, T. X., Ott, C., Chang, K. H., Araya, B., Atreyapurapu, S., Alyusuf, A., & Gaines Lanzi, R. (2020). Engaging African American Youth in the Development of a Serious Mobile Game for Sexual Health Education: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Serious Games, 8(1), e16254. https://doi.org/10.2196/16254

Pavelov, ., Archalousov, A., Slezkov, Z., Zrubcov, D., Solgajov, A., Spilov, Z., … & Slamkov, A. (2021). The need for nurse interventions in sex education in adolescents. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(2), 492. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33435342/

Seiler-Ramadas, R., Mosor, E., Omara, M., Grabovac, I., Schindler, K., Niederkrotenthaler, T., & Dorner, T. E. (2021). ‘We’re going around the subject improving sex education and adolescents’ awareness of sexually transmitted infections: a qualitative study. Sex Education, 21(1), 119-132. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1279629