[Peer education by medical students in a public health course]

Sex education by peers is becoming popular in Japan. To improve youth's reproductive health by continuous peer education and to encourage medical students to obtain the methodology necessary for health promotion, we started peer sex education by medical students in the annual public health course. One junior high school and one senior high school in Kitakyushu City in Japan asked medical students to conduct peer sex education classes at their schools. Medical students planned and carried out these classes based on the results of a questionnaire that they gave to the junior high school and senior high school students before the peer education. After the class, the students' responses to the class were investigated by another questionnaire. In this questionnaire, over 90% of the students answered that they were interested in talking about sexual issues with medical students. As for the medical students, they said that they could understand better the methodology of health promotion and also gained confidence by this experience. We will continue to carry out peer education in the medical school's public health course, and we intend to research further how junior high school and senior high school students' sexual behavior may change in the future.