Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and opinions of students about sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

Material methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study between 06 and 15 March 2015, 327 students who remained in a special school for girls in Balikesir academic year of 2014-2015 without sample selection, volunter, who were not students at health school or medical school 250 students were applied. A questionnaire consisting of 21 questions was used as data collection tool. Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows 16.0 was used in computer program with descriptive analysis including arithmetic mean, percentiles and pearson chı square test..

Resuts: The average age of the students was determined as 20.94 (± 1.82) and 70,8%, of them live in metropolitan city. Of the participants, 44.4% said that were not talking about sexuality, 56% said they were against any kind of sexual relations before marriage, 66% had knowledge about sexual health and reproductive health, 24% television, book, magazine. Of the students, 77.2% stated that they had more than one sexual partner, 61% were with prostitutes, and 9.6% were drug addicts as a risk factor of STD transmission. 96% of the students stated that STDs were transmitted via blood, and 95% stated that these diseases would cause health problems. of which 71.2% of the students stated that can use condoms to be protected from STDs. Conclusion: In the study, it was determined that university students had information needs about STD symptoms and risk factors. It has come to the conclusion that necessary training should be done before young people exhibit risky behavior in the early period. There was a significant difference between the place where the participants lived before coming to the university and the discussion of their sexuality in the family.