Sexual and reproductive health knowledge: a cross-sectional study with adolescents

Abstract

The objective was to investigate and compare sexual and reproductive knowledge and sources of information, between public school adolescents from Goiânia-Goiás. A cross-sectional study conducted with 2,449 students. We analyzed data from the self-reported questionnaire using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 13.0. We investigated the differences between proportions using c² tests and a significance level (p<0.05). We observed a statistical difference between sex considering the knowledge about Sexually Transmitted Infections and, STI and contraception prevention (p<0.000). Additionally, male adolescents presented higher exposure risk to sexual relations without preservative (p<0.000). About the acquisition of preventive methods for STIs and contraception, women were more knowledgeable about access to devices, as well as; they searched different sources and content information about sexual and reproductive health. We concluded that male adolescents presented higher social and individual vulnerability profiles.