Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Sextually Transmitted Infections among the Women of Reproductive Age in Chattogram, Bangladesh: A hospital based cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) conferes a huge health burden worldwide, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. Married women of reproductive age are mainly at risk of getting infected with STIs in this country’s set up. Without proper documentation of knowledge, attitudes and practices among this vulnerable population proper implementation of required interventions in this sector will not be possible. Objective: The study objective was to evaluate the level of knowledge and to assess the related factors associated with knowledge, symptoms and practice behaviors regarding STIs. Methods: A total of 139 ever married women of reproductive age 18 years and above were interviewed. For selecting the potential convenient sampling method was used. A cross- sectional study was conducted in a hospital in Chattogram, Bangladesh via semi structured questionnaire in face to face interviews. Results: Among the participants most of them were found to be housewives (92.1%). The study found that 55.4% have knowledge about STIs. We also found statistically significant associations between different socio- demographic factors like age, education and occupation and level of knowledge. The main source of knowledge was TV (46.8%). The proportion of self reported symptoms (at least one or more) were high (80.6%). Participants are found with practice of different risk behaviors like history of blood transfusion, less use of condom in sexual intercourse and poor treatment seeking behaviors. Poor practice of using condoms was found to be associated with having more symptoms. Level of knowledge and treatment seeking behavior are also found to be positively significantly associated (p<0.005). However, participants with symptoms did not really show adequate treatment seeking. Conclusion: Overall, this present study found that the study participants had a high proportion of self reported symptoms of STIs, inadequate awareness, and poor treatment seeking behavior.