The awareness on sexual and reproductive health issues in urban and rural areas of Greece: a retrospective study on 200 adults 18-45 years old

Abstract

Background: Sexually transmitted diseases threaten every sexually active individual. Our younger adults, as more IT literate, should be better familiarised with the various methods of STD protection as well as of the traditional and modern contraception. Objective: Our purpose was to investigate and compare the awareness of 18 to 45-year-old adults from urban and rural areas on sexual and reproductive health issues and establish any potential new strategies for its best promotion. Design and methods: Two hundred individuals coming from either our capital or one specific rural town (Tripoli), were stratified randomly and answered a three-part closed ended questionnaire. The reason we chose individuals particularly from these two industrialised areas, was to create a certain lifestyle spectrum, in the one end of which the urban mentality is totally expressed (Athens) whereas its other end (Tripoli) represents the rural way of life. The spectrum interval between these two cities can be assumed that it contains at large the rest of the Greek areas, which are indeed more urban than Tripoli but less than Athens. Descriptive statistics was conducted and contingency tables were created. Results: A total of 29% reported a committed relationship, trusted traditional methods of contraception and protection from STDs, like condoms (18% out of them were not regular users). Moreover, the percentage of hormonal contraception was low, while the younger the person or the more of an urban lifestyle they had adopted, the less cautious was their choice of sexual partners. Men still seemed to be alternating between sexual partners and performed ' one night stands ' more frequently than their female counterparts. Furthermore, people living in Athens had abandoned sexual intercourse without a condom, while they still had multiple sexual partners and more ' one night stands ' in comparison with people living in the provinces. We noticed the urban population to be more confident, but this seemed to have been a result of the multiple information that had led to ' fatigue ' and a defeatist attitude towards current health dangers. Province inhabitants preferred contraceptive methods with easiness in use, low cost, kind of and accordance with moral beliefs. Conclusions: The awareness on sex and reproduction is not yet as well developed as we might have expected according to our adequate standard of living before the years of the economic crisis. However, objective improvement of contraception methods, thorough information and organised sex education programmes for young people are expected to help the adoption of safe sex practices in the future.