Teenage Awareness of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Barbados Essay Example for Free

Teenage Awareness of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Barbados Essay During the course of this project many persons provided their assistance to me. Firstly I’d like to thank Ms. Baptiste my CAS teacher for her patience and guidance, as well as the members of my survey for their participation. Finally Id like to thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement. Introduction The topic I have chosen is the levels of awareness of the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases among Barbadian teenagers. I have chosen this topic because of the severity of impact it can have on Barbadian society without proper knowledge. Without knowledge our Barbadian teenagers can make careless decisions and cause an outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases, more commonly known as STD’s are among the world’s most commonly caught diseases. They are painful, irritating, contagious and sometimes fatal. Sexually transmitted diseases are very easy to catch, but they are also very easy to prevent. There are very many different types of STDs, some more harmful than others, such as Chlamydia, syphilis, herpes, and HIV/aids. In this study I will attempt to analyze fifteen teenagers from Queens College with different ages between 11 and 19 through a survey. From the results of these questionnaires, organisations such as can benefit from these by taking my results and placing in effect measures to educate Barbadian teens on sexually transmitted diseases to prevent widespread outbreaks. Literature Review Teens are often at increased risk for STDs compared to other age groups. This is likely due to the fact that teens are more likely to have unprotected sex as well as multiple partners. A lack of available information about prevention and treatment options, as well as a perceived stigma surrounding STD’s, may also deter teens from seeking help when they need it. This was stated by Susan Carney from Youth Development (USA), April 2nd 2008. This study on teens will be proven/ disproven in my study through my surveys among the 15 teens I will analyze. In my research I also found that, 10,000 Teens will contract an STD this year and of those 10,000, 5500 Teens will contract HIV or Chlamydia (more common among teens than older adults), Gonorrhoea also is found to have higher rates in teens than older adults. As many as 15% of sexually active teenage women are infected with HPV, many with the type of HPV linked to cervical cancer. Many STDs were found to have few or no symptoms and were NOT a part of Standard STD Testing. This information was taken from observations of statistics made by Glen Davis from the â€Å"StopThinkDecide† organisation in 2007 (USA). Awareness of the dangers of HIV/Aids is decreasing among young people at a time when fewer are practising safe sex, as revealed by Owen Bowcott in 2009. He conducted a survey on young people to discover how unaware they are of the risks of Hiv/Aids. His findings showed that nearly 60% of 16- to 24-year-olds questioned thought they were not at risk of contracting the infection after having unprotected sex and 8% believed taking a contraceptive pill offered protection against infection. Furthermore, almost 14% thought the fact that they were not gay ensured they could not contract HIV/Aids. This survey of 2,550 young people was carried out for the Staying Alive Foundation charity, which is supported by MTV UK and the Body Shop. Data Collection Sources  Each of the literary texts that I have reviewed has helped to gain a better understanding of this overall topic. This is because the statistics discovered, have been generalized from a percentage of the world’s population. If this method was to be repeated with another percentage of the population and both surveys’ results were reviewed and compared, this would prove them to be reliable as the results would be the same. This is because School education has an age requirement before a child is given more information about STDs and sexual intercourse worldwide. Therefore, children of the norm worldwide would have the same awareness level as the other at a specific age. My method of study (questionnaire and survey) has helped in bettering my knowledge of this topic since I was able to gain quantitative data that supported the statistics of other literary texts and surveys. Also, I was able to gain a minimal amount of qualitative information that allowed me to understand more about the specific areas of this topic Teens are unaware of. This was minimal as most effective questionnaires and surveys have set questions which must be generalised to the public. Presentation of Findings The amount of people who chose the correct sexually transmitted diseases on my survey is shown below in the bar chart. All of the respondents chose HIV/Aids as an STD. Figure below shows a bar chart with results from STD choices. Approximately 11% of students aged 11-19 did know that sexually transmitted diseases can be transmitted through oral sex Over 22% of students thought that all STDs can be seen by ones physical appearance while 78% chose that it is not always shown by ones physical appearance. A total of 44% of individuals studied in the questionnaire thought that homosexuals had a lesser risk at contracting STDs while 33% said they did not know and 23% thought that homosexuals had a higher risk at contracting STDs. 22% of students tested did not know that sexually transmitted diseases can be transmitted through blood transfusions. The question was asked, What age groups are most affected by STDs? and 56% of people answered that the ages 16-20 are more affected by STDs. This is shown in the chart below. 00% of people who took the survey chose that all people were susceptible to STDs. Although 33% of people answered that they thought 11-20% of Barbadian were living with Aids, 33% of people also didn’t know. Shown in the chart below. 56% of students chose contraception as a method to help prevent STDs, while 78% of students chose abstinence. This is shown in the graph below. 89% of those surveyed chose the internet and health clinics as ways to obtain information on STDs. This is shown in the chart below. 7% of students chose HIV/Aids as the most contracted disease throughout the Caribbean. This is shown below. 67% of students chose a sore that hurts and doesn’t go away as the main symptom of STDs. Interpretation of Findings Findings have shown that the awareness of sexually transmitted diseases has often been questioned amongst the younger generation. After conducting a survey to investigate just how aware Barbadian teenagers are of these STDs, results conveyed that factual information was lacking significantly amongst the youngest of the young population, ranging from 11-13 years old. According to my evidence, I believe these youngsters lack this key information due to the vague education received about sexual intercourse, and STDs from School environments. However, even though these young people do not have a broad awareness of these diseases from their School. My findings have shown that School education is still the primary source for young adults to gain this sexual knowledge. This is evident since other school children that were surveyed that ranged from the ages of 14-19 showed a much more in-depth understanding of STDs and forms of contraception. Statements made by some, illustrated that this awareness was mostly received from their school education. Therefore, as we can see, older aged students have more awareness of STDs, whereas the younger ones do not due to School systems having an age requirement. This is in order for students to learn more about these sexually transmitted diseases when they are ready. Discussion of Findings It was shown in the survey that between the ages 11 and 13, students were disturbingly unaware of the various ways of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, furthermore the different types of sexually transmitted diseases. This was not shown in the past researches collected in my literature review. It is shown that all teens studied are moderately aware of the various diseases and are well aware of ways to contract them. The government has put a sufficient investment into making teens more aware of sexually transmitted diseases. It was studied in my lit review that many teens were unaware but the country the surveys were taken from were different and may have less education on the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases in teens. My study was also taken in a very small scale whilst studies such as Susan Carney’s were taken in much larger scale making her study much more likely to be accurate. Limitations Since the survey was small and was only done on 30 students, the survey may not be accurate for the entire percentage awareness of Barbados. Also because some of the questions may have been too personal to ask, some of the required information could not be gathered due to the delicacy of the subject. The survey was only handed out at school where people may have been more educated, therefore more aware so the results may not be accurate. Recommendations My recommendations are that the government should teach students from a younger age about sexually transmitted diseases due to the high rate at which 11-13 year olds answered the questions wrong. Since the age at which teens are having sex is getting younger and younger it is only necessary to educate our future generations to help prevent an epidemic outbreak of STDs in the near future. Parents should also play a vital role in this by talking to their children from early ages so that they can be aware of the seriousness of STDs. Conclusion The lack of awareness seems to be at younger ages yet they are still those of age without knowledge of contraction of STDs. With the high amount of infected people in the Caribbean these respondents should be more aware. My conclusion is that young people should be made more aware of the impact of STDs on society and how to prevent the outbreak of these STDs.