AIDS: knowledge, attitudes and sex behavior of young people attending AIED family planning health services [AIDS: conoscenze, attitudini e comportamenti sessuali di giovani utenti dei consultori familiari AIED.]

A research group of the G. Sanarelli Institute of La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, conducted a survey on the knowledge, attitudes, and sexual behavior of young people at 14 family planning counseling centers of the Italian Association of Demographic Education (AIED). Data were collected by means of an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire containing 70 questions during the 12-month period from March 1, 1995 to February 29, 1996. Respondents were 19-24 years old. The purpose was to gain information about AIDS-related risk behavior. A total of 1085 questionnaires were collected representing the views of 978 women (90.1%) and 107 men (9.9%) with an average age of 21.9 years for the women and 21.7 years for the men. For 84% of the females and 78% of males, the source of information about AIDS was television; for 61% of males and 59% of females it was daily newspapers; and only 33% of men and 40% of women obtained such information from school. The average score of accurate knowledge about the transmission of HIV was 78% vs. 75.6% of a national sample. The respondents were more sexually active than the subjects of the national sample. 96% of males and 91% of females had experienced sexual intercourse; the average age of sexual debut was 17.7 years for males and 18.0 years for females, with an average of 4.2 partners for males and 3.0 partners for females. 6% of males had sex with prostitutes (16% in the national sample), while some women had had bisexuals (4%) or drug addicts (6.5%) as partners. The practice of anal sex was above the national average (29% for males and 24% for females). 73% of males and 79% of females always used condoms with casual sexual partners, but only 20% of males and 15% of females used condoms with steady partners.