| Backgrounds and ObjectivesAIDS is an infectious disease that does harm to people's health. According to a national epidemiological investigation, young and middle-aged people have become the main infected population and sexual transmission has become one of the main risk factors. College students, a special subpopulation of young people, have experienced huge changes in their sexual conception and behavior in the past 2 and 3 decades. A report by Sino Briton cooperative program on HIV prevention indicated that 90% of college students in China approve or do not care about sex before marriage. More and more attention was given for the risk of college students to contract HIV. An investigation, which was carried out by Zhejiang CDC in 2003, suggested that college students have not established the awareness for AIDS infection. Though the prevalence of AIDS was low in Zhejiang province, the reported STDs (Sexual Transmitted Diseases) cases had been increasing in recent years; the incidence for STD was high; and the incidence of STD in college student has been increasing as well. Studies carried out about HIV/AIDS among college student thus far focused on HIV related knowledge, attitude toward sex and rate of sexual experience, study on the profiles of risky sexual behaviors for this population was very few.This study was conducted to explore the exact rates of risky sexual behaviors among college student and its the related factors, therefore to evaluate the risk for college students to contract HIV, and enhance the effectiveness of HIV prevention in this population. MethodsHangzhou University for Electronic Science and Technology was selected for the study. Stratified and cluster sampling were used to recruit the students. The average number of students for one class and the number of classes were calculated at first; intervals for sampling therefore were computed. The questionnaires include socio-demographic information, AIDS related knowledge, sexual attitude and behavior, self-efficacy and interventional services they received. The survey was conducted at rest time subject to class. The trained investigators explained the survey, distributed and collect the questionnaire. Epidata3.1 software was used to input data, and SPSS 12.0 software was adopted for data statistic analysis.ResultsTotally, 3344 valid participants were collected in the analysis, including 2311 males and 1033 females, accounting for 69.1% and 30.9% respectively. With regards to the knowledge of HIV transmission, most of college students could correctly responded to blood, sex and placenta transmission with correct responses being over 90%, the correct response for transmission of maternal latex feeding was 67.2%; and the positive rate for mosquito transmission was only 45.2%. Regarding the knowledge of prevention, the correct responses for condom use and non- sharing needles for prevention was less than 70%. The main service that college students have received was distribution of materials for HIV/AIDS education, accounting for 45.7%. Of 3344 participants, 407 (334 males and 43 females) were sexually active with a rate of 12.2%. 114 participants, accounting for 3.4% (95%CI, 2.5%～4.0%)of total and 28.4% of sexually active participants, respectively, conducted risky sex behavior including any of being having had more than one sex partners, casual sexual partners, paid sex, sold sex, and male-to-male sex. The multivariate analysis revealed that male participants (OR, 5.366; 95%CI, 2.565-11.228), being from urban area (OR, 1.975; 95%CI, 1.301-2.977), being high grade (OR, 2.209; 95%CI, 1.215-3.389), consumption of being over 1000 Yuan per month (OR, 3.580; 95%CI, 2.268-5.561) and liberal attitude toward student's sex (OR, 3.62795%; CI, 2.339-5.623) were the independent determinant for high risky sexual behavior of college students. ConclusionsThough student's high-risk sexual behaviors were low. In the campaign of AIDS prevention, behavioral intervention should be strengthened with various effective methods. More attentions should be given to male students, students who are from city, and those with high consumption. Meanwhile, comprehensive intervention should be taken among college students for AIDS prevention. The intervention should not only enhance students AIDS related knowledge, but also help them to establish positive attitudes, consequently, to decrease their initiation of high-risk behavior. |
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