Awareness of sexually transmitted disease among women and service providers in rural Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Both a 1994 survey of 8674 married women of reproductive age from four rural thanas (Abhoynagar, Bagherpara, Keshobpur, and Sirajganj) of Bangladesh and focus group discussions conducted among government health and family planning providers in the same thanas revealed inadequate awareness of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and their transmission. Only 12% of survey respondents were considered to have a basic understanding of STDs and how to protect themselves from infection. Even after probing, only 25% of married women had ever heard of syphilis or gonorrhea; of these, just half knew the mechanisms of disease transmission. In the logistic regression analysis, awareness of STDs and their transmission was significantly associated with older age, higher educational level, Muslim religion, attendance at a family health and welfare center, current contraceptive use, and women's mobility outside the home. Although service providers had moderate levels of STD knowledge, there were many misconceptions (e.g., that STDs could be transmitted by wearing the clothes of an infected person). Providers agreed couples should be counseled to use condoms and avoid brothels. Awareness of AIDS was even lower than knowledge of syphilis and gonorrhea among both married women and health care workers. Training of health care providers is recommended as a first step in a national campaign aimed at disseminating accurate, culturally acceptable knowledge about STDs throughout rural Bangladesh.