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DIFFERENTIALS IN SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVEHEALTH KNOWLEDGE AMONG EAST MALAYSIANADOLESCENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2018

Halimah Awang ,
Wah Yun Low ,
Wen Ting Tong ,
Lih Yoong Tan ,
Whye Lian Cheah ,
Helen Benedict Lasimbang  and
Hamizah Mohd Hassan
Halimah Awang*
Affiliation:
Social Security Research Centre, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Wah Yun Low
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Wen Ting Tong
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Lih Yoong Tan
Affiliation:
Social Security Research Centre, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Whye Lian Cheah
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine and Health Services, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
Helen Benedict Lasimbang
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine and Health Services, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
Hamizah Mohd Hassan
Affiliation:
National Population and Family Development Board, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*
1Corresponding author. Email: halima@um.edu.my
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Summary

The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge ofEast Malaysian adolescents on sexual andreproductive health issues. Data were collected inMarch–July 2015 from 2858 adolescents aged 13–18years from selected East Malaysian secondary schoolsusing a self-administered questionnaire. Twelveitems relating to sexual and reproductive healthwere used to measure respondents’ knowledge based ontheir responses ‘True’, ‘False’ or ‘Don’t know’,with the proportion of correct answers being thevariable of interest. Cronbach’s alpha for thetwelve items was 0.761 and the mean knowledge scorewas 6.8. While the majority of the respondents knewthat a woman can get pregnant if she has sex with aman and that HIV and AIDS can be transmitted throughsexual intercourse, knowledge about Malaysia’sabortion laws, that a woman can get pregnant if shehas sex only once and that people with sexuallytransmitted infections may look healthy was poor.Older respondents and those from urban schoolsreported significantly higher knowledge than youngerrespondents and those from rural schools,respectively. More emphasis should be given inschools to the specific topics for which low levelsof sexual and reproductive health knowledge werefound, with greater attention being given to youngeradolescents and those in rural areas.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 282 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2018 

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