Determination of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections among Seto Semero High School Students

Back ground: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are illnesses that have a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior including vaginal intercourse, oral and anal sex.Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are major public health problem affecting mostly young people in both developing countries and developed countries.Objective: This study aims to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of STIs among Seto Semero high school students, Jimma town, Ethiopia. Methods:A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted.A total of 324 participants completed Pre-tested, structured self-administered questionnaires in April 2014.The Statistically Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 was used for the statistical description and ANOVA analysis and results were presented in numbers, percentages, means and standard deviations.The cut-off 5% level of significance was taken to see the difference between groups.Results: Three hundred and twenty four students participated in the study.Students making a response rate of 98.2% of which 189(58.3%) were males and the remaining 135(41.7%)were females.Most of (88%) of the participants were between 15-19years of age and 274(84.6%)were single.The majority of 287(88.5%)had ever heard about STIs.Radio/TV was the most frequently source of information for STIs. Conclusion:Practice of respondents towards condom use is low.Educational level of respondents and parents had significant association with knowledge level.We recommended that Setosemero high school administration body to organize and strengthen anti-STIs club in school to raise awareness among students.