Teenagers, young people and family planning: a survey in five Romanian high schools

Family planning was for a long time prohibited in Romania. This has reduced the demand for contraceptives. Even though contraceptives were made access ible and their use promoted since the beginning of December 1989, abortion has still been the preferred form of fertility regulation, as the people of Romania are unaware of the advantages of contraception The purpose of the present survey was to assess the level of sexual knowledge, attitudes and p ractice of teenagers and young people from urban areas of Romania and to id entify if there was any significant difference in terms of age, education a nd sexual activity. A baseline examination was undertaken in which data wer e collected from 279 students who attended five high schools and six post h igh schools from the Moldavia cities, Iassy, Piatra-Neamt and Birlad. Stude nts were asked to complete a self administered questionnaire, and a 97.5% r esponse rate for the whole survey was achieved. Difference between answers were tested using chi-square test from 2 x 2 table and median test, average . A P-value <0.05 was considered to be significant. The study established t hat knowledge, attitudes and practice vary by age (adolescents (less than o r equal to 19y) vs young people (>19y)) and education (high school vs post high school) in some regards. At the aggregate level, regarding knowledge, a statistically significant difference was found between adolescents and yo ung people; but no statistically significant difference was found between h igh school and post high school students. Apart from lack of basic knowledg e the study confirmed that many false beliefs regarding contraceptives are held by the survey participants. People who were sexually active were no be tter informed than the rest of survey participants, but they had a signific antly higher percentage of positive attitudes regarding effectiveness of pi lls and withdrawal. Both, the knowledge and attitudes of students necessari ly required appropriate sex education which, ideally should be introduced b efore young people become sexually active.