title: Knowledge, behavior and attitude towards sexually transmitted infections and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome of adolescent students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adolescence is a period of great physical, mental and emotional turmoil within teenagers. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of, attitude to and behaviour towards STI and AIDS among adolescence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four randomly selected higher secondary school from students of class XI and XII were included after taking their verbal consent. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was given to all the participants of the school. In order to get correct answers, specific questions were explained to the students with the help of their class teachers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results were encouraging with the majority (94.16%) have heard about STIs and HIV/AIDS. Teachers (100%), Newspaper/magazine (90%) and Television (78.33%) were the main informational source about disease. Respondents correctly identified that unsafe sexual contact (86.66%) as major mode of transmission of AIDS and more than 90% of students regarded the use of condoms as the true preventive method for the disease. Among those respondents 6% were sexually active and their partners were either sex worker (71%) or friends (29%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The student's attitude towards disease was positive and most of the adolescent wished inclusion of sex education in their text book from secondary level school's curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, United Mission Hospital, Palpa, Nepal. sandeep140@hotmail.com
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Khanal
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thakur
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khatri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suwal
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seomangal
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires