Army women's sexual health information needs.
OBJECTIVE
To ascertain Army women's specific sexual health information needs prior to developing a theoretically based, self-administered intervention to promote safer sexual practices during deployment.


METHODS
An exploratory design was employed to address the research questions.


METHODS
Participants (N= 131) were Army women recruited from Army posts around the United States. The women ranged in age from 18 to 68 years (M= 30.8, SD= 10.5), were of varied ethnicity, and had an average time in service of 8.0 years (SD= 6.6).


METHODS
Desire for knowledge about sexual health and safer sexual practices were measured with forced-choice responses based upon DiIorio's Safer Sex Questionnaire (DiIorio, Parsons, Lehr, Adame, & Carlone, 1992) and open-ended questions to assess past information received, quality of that information, and information desired.


RESULTS
Participants had moderate levels of sexual risk behaviors. Forced-choice responses yielded little desire for information regarding safer sexual practices. Women identified different sexual health and safer sexual information needs based upon whether they were at a normal duty station or during deployment.


CONCLUSIONS
Participants did not identify many information needs; however, their sexual behaviors indicate the need for interventions.
von Sadovszky
Victoria
V
College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. von-sadovszky.1@osu.edu
Ryan-Wenger
Nancy
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008888:Military Nursing; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012309:Risk-Taking; D021841:Safe Sex / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012736:Sex Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013664:Teaching Materials; D014481:United States; D014931:Women, Working / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology