ABSTRACT
A working instrument was designed to explore sex knowledge, practices and behaviours as well as factors related to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. The instrument consists of a questionnaire that should be asked by the interviewer. This questionnaire was validated in a test carried out in the City of Havana and submitted to the expert's criteria to improve its overall design.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome , Adolescent Behavior , HIV Infections , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Sexually Transmitted Diseases , Surveys and Questionnaires , Adolescent , Cuba , Female , Humans , Male , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 1995 in a representative sample of the Cuban population aged 15 years or over with the objective of describing prevalence and characteristics of smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity in the urban population which could have been affected by epidemic neuropathy from 1991-1993. The sampling was stratified at provincial and municipal levels and then by cluster samplings. 93% of the sample was surveyed (14 300 people). 30% of the population aged 17 years and over smoked; the highest proportion of smokers was located in 40-49 years age group; men smoked more than woman regardless of age. The prevalence of alcohol consumption was 45.2% in which Eastern provinces exceeded the domestic average with males predominating. The prevalence of physical inactivity at national level was 33%, 25.7% for males and 39.8% for females. 47.3% of males and 25.4% of females classified as physically active because of their useful extra activity. It was considered that irregular relationships between these 3 risk factors and the incidence of epidemic neuropathy at the ecological level make it think that, although they have a real influence on the determinants of the disease, other factors may also better account for the occurrence of these cases.
Subject(s)
Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Alcohol Drinking/adverse effects , Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Cuba/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Incidence , Male , Middle Aged , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/etiology , Prevalence , Risk Factors , Sex Distribution , Smoking/adverse effects , Smoking/epidemiology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Urban Population/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
The observed increase of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in Cuba aroused the interest of carrying out a study aimed at exploring risky sexual behaviours and attitudes, and histories of STD. A crosswise descriptive study was undertaken using a randomized sample taken from the universe of adolescent students in the City of Havana during 1995-96 school year. The sample was made up by 2,793 teenagers aged 11-19 years (1,370 females and 1,423 males). Previously trained experts linked to this field collected data by means of a structured interview which had been drawn up for this end. It was confirmed that more than half of adolescent students did not use condom in their sexual intercourse 57% had more than one sexual partner along the year, 40% believed it was difficult to keep only one partner whereas 35% had more than one sexual partner at the same time. Risk and protected sexual habits were noticed, with 39% for oral-genital and 21.4% for genital-anal. 22% for the interviewed adolescent said they had histories of STD.