<p><strong>Aim </strong>The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of midwives and gynaecologists at youth health clinics about their own thoughts of risks with unprotected oral sex and testing of orally contagious sexually transmitted infections (STI). The aim was also to investigate the level of knowledge of oral STIs. One further aim was to examine what they thought about the level of knowledge about oral STIs among adolescents and how common unprotected oral sex is within this group and if oral STIs/oral sex is brought up in the form of information or questions during STI-testing.</p><p><strong>Method </strong>Seventy-five youth health clinics all over Sweden were randomly chosen. A questionnaire was sent by mail to the clinics. It included questions about attitudes, knowledge about STIs and information exchange. A midwife or a gynaecologist was asked to fill out the questionnaire. The answers were analysed in the statistical programme SPSS.</p><p><strong>Results </strong>The percentage of answers was 76 % (57/75). One third of the clinics had guidelines for oral STI-testing. Those clinics were more often testing for oral STIs, informing and asking adolescents about oral STIs. Seventy-nine percent responded that they always or sometimes informed adolescents who were tested for STIs about risks with unprotected oral sex. Almost everyone thought that the knowledge about oral STIs was insufficient among health care staff. Staff working at clinics with guidelines more often thought that they had sufficient knowledge about oral STIs than those without guidelines. All respondents thought unprotected oral sex was common among adolescents. Eight out of ten were in favor of oral STI-testing being performed more often. The overall attitude was that adolescents should be given more information of the risks of STIs when practising unprotected oral sex. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions </strong>Practise of unprotected oral sex involves a risk of transmission of oral STIs. Youth health clinics need to be more actively informing adolescents about it. There is a lack of national guidelines for testing of STIs in Sweden. The majority of youth health clinics did not have any local guidelines for oral STI-testing. Guidelines on oral STI-testing are needed for achieving a more evidence-based care in testing and informing about oral STIs.</p><p><strong>Keywords; </strong>Oral sex, STI, testing, midwives, attitudes.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-112511 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Eriksson, Ewa, Olovsson, Anna-Lotta |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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