Comparing the awareness of and beliefs in sexually transmitted infections among university students in Madagascar and the United States of America

Abstract

Young adults have a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than other age groups. This risk may be mediated by their social and cultural setting which can impact young adults’ awareness of, beliefs in, and risk of contracting STIs (including HIV/AIDS). In order to understand how these factors vary among young adults of different cultures, it is important to study these issues on a cross-cultural scale. This study aimed to increase understanding of the relationship between the culture of a place of study and: (1) STI awareness; (2) belief in STIs; and (3) self-reported STI prevalence in the study population. Survey data were collected from university students in Madagascar (n = 242 surveys in 2013) and the United States of America (n = 199 surveys in 2015). Compared to students at the American university, students at the Malagasy university: (1) did not appear to have a conclusively lower awareness of STIs; (2) did not differ in rates of belief in the existence of gonorrhea and syphilis, but had higher rates of disbelief in HIV/AIDS; and (3) were more likely to report having been infected with syphilis and gonorrhea, but not with HIV/AIDS. Students at the Malagasy university also listed different reasons than the students at the American university for why they believed in the existence of STIs. These findings highlight the need for further cross-cultural research to better adapt intervention strategies to different cultural settings.

Knowledge Gaps of STIs in Africa; Systematic review

“…Fifty one included studies assessed the awareness of 1,235,811 Africans in regard to HIV in total of 35 countries, eleven studies were conducted in Nigeria [14,16,83,17,18,23,38,48,60,63,81] , nine in South Africa [24,27,29,34,37,42,46,82,84] , five in each of Ghana [19,31,65,66,68] and Ethiopia [21,73,77,78,80] , four in Uganda [13,55,72,75] , three in Mozambique [22,26,30] , two in each of Namibia [45,76] and Cameroon [59,67] , one in each of Congo [25] , Sudan [33] , Senegal [39] , Morocco [47] , Gambia [50] , Tanzania [53] , Madagascar [71] and Egypt [74] while a study provided awareness prevalence in 33 countries [8] . The conduction of the studies ranged from 2010 to 2017.…”

“…The study participants’ age were equal or less than 25 years in thirteen HIV-related included studies, representing a total population of 5,908 participants; five studies were conducted in Nigeria [14,16–18,63] , three in Ghana [19,31,66] , two in Mozambique [26,30] , and one in each of Cameroon [59] , Madagascar [71] and Uganda [72] . Majority of studies were toward students and adolescents (11/13) while two studies were conducted among pregnant women.…”

“…Fourteen included studies assessed the awareness of 9,446 Africans in regard to HBV, three studies were conducted in each of Nigeria [61,62,64] , Cameroon [20,40,58] and Ghana [12,15,28] , two in Ethiopia [32,52] , one in each of Kenya, Mozambique and Madagascar [26,57,71] . The oldest among the study included was conducted in 2010 while the newest was conducted in 2016 (Table 1).…”

“…Six included studies assessed the awareness of 2,306 Africans in regard to HCV, two studies were conducted in Egypt [74,79] and one in each of Ghana [15] , Mozambique [26] , Ethiopia [32] and Madagascar [71] . The oldest among the study included was conducted after 2010 while the newest was conducted in 2015 (Table 1).…”

“…Nine included studies assessed the awareness of 5,157 Africans in regard to HPV, four studies were conducted in Nigeria [35,36,41] and one in each of Madagascar, Morocco, Mali, South Africa and Senegal [43,49,51,54,70,71] . The oldest among the study included was conducted in 2010 while the newest was conducted in 2016 (Table 1).…”