Understanding Attitude towards Gender, Sexuality, Sexual Health Needs and Information Seeking Behaviour amongst First Year Medicine Students: An Observational Study

Introduction: The topics related to sexual attitude and reproductive health are not commonly and openly discussed. The scarcity of having open discussions especially with parents results in lack of awareness among adolescents about contraception, sexual values, beliefs and behaviour. First year medical students are usually in their last years of adolescence. In future, they are going to communicate with their patients on sexual health matters. Hence, it becomes essential to understand their own perspective regarding this.

Aim: To understand the attitude of first year medical students towards gender, sexuality, sexual health needs and their information seeking behaviour.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire. The study population comprised of 314, first year medical students aged between 17 to 20 years at Smt. Kashibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India. The questionnaire included sections on communication within family and friends, personal attitude towards sexuality and gender and information seeking behaviour. Statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.

Results: Total 314 first year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students (135 males, 179 females with mean age of 18.35 years) participated in the study. More than 90% of students were interested to socialise with opposite sex, yet more than 50% of them did not want to be involved in premarital sex as it was against their religious beliefs. More number of boys (65.93%), as compared to girls (38.55%), agreed that it’s ok to have sex before marriage with proper contraceptive measures. Maintenance of virginity until marriage was important for girls (56.98%) as compared to boys (37.04%) which was statistically significant (p<0.001). Students lacked communication with their parents on the topics of sexuality. A 95.86% used internet to seek information on sexual health matters. Sexual problems (72.61%) and genital hygiene (73.89%) were the maximally searched topics on internet. Total 64.33% of students were interested in attending a formal course regarding sexual/reproductive health.

Conclusion: Adolescent's attitude about sexual matters is guided by their religious beliefs. There is a dearth of communication between the adolescents and their parents on sexual health matters. Majority preferred seeking information from friends and/ or via internet which can be unreliable at times.