Knowledge and awareness about STDs among women in Bangladesh

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Mosharaf Hossain¹  Hayati Kadir Shahar¹  Kulanthayan KC Mani¹  Rafiqul Islam²  Sherina Mohd Sidik³ 

[1] Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia;Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development, University of Rajshahi, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia;

关键词: STDs;    Knowledge;    Awareness;    HIV/AIDS;    Women;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-775

 received in 2014-02-07, accepted in 2014-07-10,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundKnowledge and awareness concerning sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has become the burning issue of the day. Although STDs pose serious risks to health security, there is very little literature quantifying the knowledge and awareness of these diseases and their principal socioeconomic determinants. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of different socio-economic and demographic factors on knowledge and awareness about STDs among women in Bangladesh.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011. It involves 10,996 women in six divisions of Bangladesh – Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Barisal, Khulna and Sylhet. In this study, the percentage distribution and logistic regression model are used to identify which factors are associated with knowledge and awareness among women in Bangladesh about STDs.ResultsThere is a significant association between geographic division (Dhaka: OR = 1.669, 95% CI = 0.89-2.10, Khulna: OR = 2.234, 95% CI = 1.2-3.2); places of residence (Rural: OR = 0.363, 95% CI = 0.20-1.08), respondent’s age (20-29 years: OR = 1.331; 95% CI = 0.98-2.31); education (Primary: OR = 2.366, 95% CI = 1.98-3.1, secondary: OR = 10.089, 95% CI = 8.98-12.77, higher: OR = 20.241, 95% CI = 18.33-22.65); listening to radio (OR = 1.189, 95% CI = 1.29-3.12) and watching TV (OR = 2.498, 95% CI = 2.22-4.09) with knowledge and awareness among women in Bangladesh about STDs.ConclusionThere is a need to improve the education in Bangladesh about STDs particularly among those in the rural areas and older ages of women (30-49 years). Formal, informal and special educational knowledge and awareness programmes may be implemented to educate people concerning STDs in Rajshahi, Sylhet and Chittangong division. Campaigns and mass media can be used to increase the knowledge and awareness among the community, especially among women. Policies concerning the issue of STDs need to be improved and can be emphasized in collaboration with government agencies to ensure the success of these campaigns.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Hossain et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014