Teenagers, young people and family planning: a survey in five Romanian high schools

Family planning was for a long time prohibited in Romania. This has reduced the demand for contraceptives. Even though contraceptives were made accessible and their use promoted since the beginning of December 1989, abortion has still been the preferred form of fertility regulation, as the people of Romania are unaware of the advantages of contraception. The purpose of the present survey was to assess the level of sexual knowledge, attitudes and practice of teenagers and young people from urban areas of Romania and to identify if there was any significant difference in terms of age, education and sexual activity. A baseline examination was undertaken in which data were collected from 279 students who attended five high schools and six post high schools from the Moldavia cities, Iassy, Piatra-Neamt and Bîrlad. Students were asked to complete a self administered questionnaire, and a 97.5% response rate for the whole survey was achieved. Difference between answers were tested using chi-square test from 2x2 table and median test, average. A P-value <0.05 was considered to be significant. The study established that knowledge, attitudes and practice vary by age (adolescents (< or =19y) vs young people (>19y)) and education (high school vs post high school) in some regards. At the aggregate level, regarding knowledge, a statistically significant difference was found between adolescents and young people; but no statistically significant difference was found between high school and post high school students. Apart from lack of basic knowledge the study confirmed that many false beliefs regarding contraceptives are held by the survey participants. People who were sexually active were no better informed than the rest of survey participants, but they had a significantly higher percentage of positive attitudes regarding effectiveness of pills and withdrawal. Both, the knowledge and attitudes of students necessarily required appropriate sex education which, ideally should be introduced before young people become sexually active.