Knowledge and Perceptions on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Undergraduate Students in Bhaktapur

Abstract

Introduction: Improper information or a lack of information can have a negative influence on the sexual and reproductive health of young people. Adolescents turning to the young population who do not have a medical education, and background are most of the time overlooked when it comes to their sexual and reproductive health rights. The main aim of the study was to determine the knowledge and perception of the sexual and reproductive health of undergraduate students with a non-medical background in the Bhaktapur district.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 382 undergraduate students from 8 colleges who were currently pursuing Engineering, Management, and Humanities in the Bhaktapur area. Ethical approval was taken before the collection of data. Self- administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to maintain confidentiality and privacy. Unwilling and married populations were excluded from the study. All the extracted data were entered and analyzed from SPSS version 25.

Results: Almost 3/8th of the respondents had poor knowledge (36.9%), followed by moderate knowledge (33.8%). Similarly, more than half of the respondents (52.1%) had a positive perception while 47.9% had a negative perception. There is also an association between the dependent variables, knowledge, and perception i.e., p-value 0.023.

Conclusions: The study showed that most of the respondents had a poor level of knowledge. While more than half of the respondents had a positive perception of Sexual and Reproductive Health. Almost 1/8th of the respondents have suffered from some kind of sexual and reproductive health problems.