Gender differences in sexual health knowledge among emerging adults in acute-care settings

Abstract

Context: Emerging adults (aged 18-25 years) are increasingly seeking evaluation in acute-care clinics for sexual health-related concerns to receive treatment and education. Objective: To assess the sexual health knowledge of emerging adult patients by gender at acute-care health centers. Methods: A prospective, self-administered survey was distributed from August 2014 through May 2016 to patients aged 18 to 24 years who presented to 1 of 4 acute-care locations in a university town in a mid-Atlantic state. Analyses included descriptive statistics, as well as? 2 and Fisher exact test crosstabulations to determine differences between genders. Results: A total of 388 patients aged 18 to 24 years responded to the survey, with 81% of the sample identifying themselves as students and 64% identifying as female. Women were more likely than men to state that they sought sexual health advice at an urgent-care or walk-in clinic (70.3% vs 52.1%; P