Results of the Teen Health Quiz
We entered the data and then analyzed it. Here's what we found:
Who participated?
- an equal number of males and females
- over 200 hundred students from 3 PEI high schools
- their average age was 15 1/2 years old
- 79% were in or had taken Family Living in high school
What they said:
- 71% said the quiz helped them realize they need to learn more about preventing pregnancy and STDs
- it's easier to talk about preventing pregnancy than STDs
Where they get their information:
- school is the main source of information about teen health
- doctors were the least likely source of information.
Here is a chart of the sources:
Discussion of Results:
Teens consider the prevention of pregnancy and STDs to be very important.
They rated themselves 3.2 out of 4 for what they believe they know about preventing pregnancy and 3 out of 4 for how easy it would be to talk to a partner about preventing pregnancy. Nearly 95% felt that both partners are responsible for prevention of pregnancy. 20% did not know that antibiotics reduce the effectiveness of the pill and 8.5% thought that pregnancy could only happen if the partners were in love!
They rated themselves 2.9 out of 4 for what they believe they know about preventing STDs and a 3.1 out of 4 for how easy it would be to talk to a partner about preventing STDs. They admitted it would be more difficult to tell a partner that they have an STD. When asked to list STDs, over 95% knew about HIV/Aids, 90% about herpes, 75% about genital warts, 65% about gonorrhea and about 50% listed chlamydia, crabs and syphilis. Eleven percent did not know that oral sex can transmit STDs and nearly 10 percent thought that condoms were completely reliable for preventing pregnancy and STDs. They were less familiar with some of the symptoms of STDs although they knew that you cannot always tell if someone has one and they realize that a partner may not share that information. They also realize that some STDs cannot be cured.
Here is a chart of the Probability of STD being listed by teens:
Our Conclusion:
The data shows that teens care a lot about protecting themselves. They are reasonably knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe. They also seem comfortable discussing these things with a partner.
We also believe that the fact that nearly 80% of the participants had been in Family Living may have affected the results. In Family Living courses, students learn a lot about these topics. These classes also have a lot of discussion which may make it easier for individuals to discuss these topics with a partner.
It would be interesting to sample a broader group of teens to remove this bias in our data results. We also think it would be interesting to compare our research with other studies and to do a complete search of other websites aimed at giving health information to teens. We would also like to have an interactive section so that site visitors can tell us what they think.
All in all, most participants said they realize they need to know more about preventing pregnancy and STDs, so we think our web site will be useful to all teens. We also think that since the Internet was listed as a source by only 10% of participants, there is a need to promote our site. We plan to add 'tags' so that search engines can find us and arrange to be linked from relevant sites.