Case records and commentaries in obstetrics and gynaecology

Abstract

A sample of 819 male undergraduate students in one of the universities in Nairobi, Kenya had a self-administered questionnaire to assess their sexuality, knowledge, attitudes and use of condom. Of these, 238 (29.1%) were "freshers", that 'is, they had just joined the university, 261 (31.9%) were first year students, and 320 (39%) were second year students. The age range of the students was 18 to 40 years with the mean of 21.9 years. 97.2 % of the students were single. 80.8% were rurally born while 65.8% of the students were residing in rural areas during the college vacations. 91.5% of the students were sexually active and 88.7% of the students had their first sexual contact by the age of 19 years, with a mean age of 13.5 years. 62.2% of the students had not planned their first sexual contact and the majority did not use any form of contraception (89.6%). Only 7.2% of the sexually experienced student were temporarily abstaining from sex and had not had sex in the past year. 64.6% of the students indicated having been sexually active in the past four weeks. The spontaneous knowledge of contraceptive was high with at least 93% of the student mentioning one modern method. At the same time 71.0% indicated having ever used a contraceptive. 91% of the students had heard of the condom and 54% of them had ever used one with only 30.1 % indicating that they had used a condom in the last sexual contact. The attitudes toward the condom were poor with half of the students indicating that the condoms were messy to use and

25% felt shy to collect condoms from a source. 24% would not like be seen holding a condom by their girlfriends. Knowledge of the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was spontaneously mentioning gonorrhoea, 70% Acquired Syndrome (AIDS), and 75% syphilis. However, only mention the correct symptoms for gonorrhoea, 17% for syphilis and 29% for AIDS. Nearly a fifth of the students haven ever suffered from an STD. The condom was 60 % of the student as a way of preventing contracting This study has shown that the students, in spite, of their knowledge of contraceptives and of the prophylactic use of the rondom,are only limited users of different contraceptives and of thecondom. The impression is gained from the study that given the rightinformation, access, and motivation, students would continue to use the condom as a contraceptive and as preventive measure against STDs. The paper suggests that programmes to promote condom use among hese young, single and sexually active population should be incorporated into the college activities as part of an overall ational effort at controlling the spread of AIDS.