| dc.description.abstract | This is a study to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice of high school students in the Capital city and one province in the mountainous area in Lao PDR, the land of million elephants .
The first objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices on STD/AIDS/HIV of high school students. The second objective was to determine the main contributing factors to increased risk of STD/AIDS/HIV in high school level.
It is a cross-sectional study conducted in October to December 2002. The research attempts to highlight the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the high school students in Vientiane Municipality and Bokeo Province, and factors that influence them to have high risk behaviour on HIV/AIDS and STDs. The sample included 320 high school students, male 172 (53.8%) and female 148 (46.2%), aged 11-19 years
who were randomly selected from 35 classrooms in two high school level. Some students have not had sex education courses because in Lao P.D.R, they give sex education to students in the last year of primary school level and students in the last year of high school level. The high school students in the research were from three grades, 9-11. All of them were pleased to participate in the research, including their parents, who are allowed their children to participate to the research. Those who did not consent (6 parents) were excluded from the research. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. In addition focus group discussion with students parents were conducted along with in-dept interviews with some key persons who are in charge of giving sex education to students, the administrators, the head of some sectors who are involved with young people and some people who works with socioeconomic development in Lao P.D.R. The adolescent stage is considered one of the most crucial periods in a person s life
because it represents the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is the times when many important social, economic, biological and psychological events occur that pave the way to the adult life. During this period, certain decisions that impact on the future are made: to stay in school, find employment, initiate sex relations, marry or even have a child, to name a few. In Lao P.D.R the percentage of adolescents aged 10-19 years, is currently 23.2% of a population of 5.2 million. The adolescent high school enrolment rate is 41.5% [1]. A high total fertility rate of 5.6 with a very low
contraceptive prevalence rate of 11%, combined with a very high maternal mortality rate of 650, made the Lao P.D.R one of the most vulnerable countries with regards to reproductive health and ARH problems. [2] From these results we found that most of the high school students had low knowledge regarding contraceptives. They had
moderate knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission ways and method to prevent
themselves from HIV/AIDS infection. In sum the results are not conclusive and therefore the hypothesis can neither be rejected nor accepted in the context of this study. To improve on this maybe it is an idea that, in order to lessen the opposition to sex education, we should try to give sex education to their parents too. However, on
the positive side we found that most of students agreed that having sex education was important for them. This positive view also included their teachers who agreed that it is very important to give sex education to their students. This is a crucial point because it questions the effectiveness and use of giving sex education to students as long as the knowledge is not internalized and leading to behavioural change. This suggests that sex education have to come as a component of a broader integrated approach which is emphasizing the appropriate means to adopt safe sex behaviour. These findings are thus implying that systematic sex education, life skills training
programs and supportive school environment for behaviour-changes are necessary to protect school students from HIV/AIDS infection. | nor |