Prevalence of sexually risky behaviors among Mexican medical students

Abstract

University students are at high risk of sexually transmitted infections due to the lack of adequate sexual education, as well as multiple associated factors, which lead to risky sexual practices. It is important to update data about sexual behaviors to identify the main factors associated with sexually risky behaviors. The present study aimed to evaluate the current prevalence of sexually risky practices in medical students. A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students through an anonymous self-administered online questionnaire including demographic characteristics and sexual behaviors. We used descriptive statistics and multivariable regression to analyze the data collected. A total of 1520 undergraduate medical students aged between 18 and 28 years old were included in the study. Sixty percent of the students were sexually active with a higher proportion in men (70%), likewise, they had an earlier sexual debut (16.5 vs 16.9 years old), and a greater number of lifetime sexual partners than women (3.8 vs 2.2). The main sexual activity in both groups was vaginal sex with high use of condoms (75%), however, most of them (67%) reported having unprotected oral sex. Logistic regression analysis showed that condomless sex was associated with having oral sex, anal sex, and being female. The findings of this study showed that medical university students are involved in risky sexual behaviors, the major risk factor was unprotected oral sex. Based on these results, we recommended designing interventions to improve sexual education and preventive approaches from early stages such as in middle school students to mitigate sexually transmitted infections among medical university students.

Fig 1. Proportions of sexual practices among sex-active students.

The percentage of vaginal, oral, and anal sex in students who reported having had sexual activity. The data were analyzed usingChi-square exact test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant (***P<0.001).

Fig 2. Influence of the age of sexual debut in the number of sexual partners.

The timing of sexual debut was inversely correlated with the number of lifetime sexual partners for both women and men (A), Spearman correlation analysis. (B) Mann Whitney test shows that early sexual debut impact significantly the number of lifetime sexual partners in both women and men students (***P<0.001).

Fig 3. Condom use in medical students.

Percentages of condom use during vaginal (A), oral (B), and anal sex (C). Responses were categorized as yes/no or sometimes and compared between both groups by Chi-square t test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant (*P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001).