IntroductionThe influence of media portrayals of sexual attitudes and normative expectations of young people at a critical developmental stage is of public health concern.ObjectivesTo examine the role of mass media and Internet utilization in shaping the sexual health attitudes and behaviors of young undergraduates in Osogbo metropolis, Osun State, Nigeria.Materials and methodsIn a descriptive cross-sectional study, 400 undergraduates were selected using a multistage random sampling technique. Four hundred and fifty pretested, semistructured questionnaires were distributed; of these, 400 were returned properly filled. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 16.ResultsMean age of respondents ± standard deviation was 23.6±2.99 years. Most were aware of the various forms of mass media (>95%). Most (64.0%) respondents spent 1–5 hours watching television, daily, and most used the Internet often. About 38.3% and 24.2% of respondents used the Internet and radio/television, respectively, as sources of information on sexual issues. Most respondents used the Internet for school assignments (83.0%, n=332), electronic mail (89.0%, n=356), and for accessing sexually explicit materials (74.5%, n=298). Most of the respondents (73.5%) opined that the Internet has a bad influence on youths’ sexual behavior, although accessing the Internet for sexual material or movies was acceptable to 25.3% of them. Of the 226 respondents who had ever had sex, 226 (100%), 37 (16.4%), 31 (13.7%), and 10 (4.4%) practiced coitus, oral sex, masturbation, and anal sex, respectively; 122 (54.0%) always used condoms, whereas 90 (40.0%) never used condoms during sexual activity; 33 (14.6%) had had sex with commercial sex workers. Further analysis showed that those who were yet to marry (single) were less likely to be sexually experienced than those who were married (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.075, 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.008–0.679), and those who said accessing the Internet for sexual material is not acceptable to them were also less likely to be sexually experienced than those to whom it was acceptable (AOR =0.043, 95% CI =0.016–0.122). Predictors of having multiple sexual partners include the sex of the respondent and the frequency of Internet use, with females (AOR =0.308, 95% CI =0.113–0.843) and those who rarely use the Internet less likely to have multiple sexual partners.ConclusionWe conclude that uncontrolled exposure to mass media and Internet could negatively influence the sexual patterns and behavior of youths.

Introduction. Young people are at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of peer education in improving HIV knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices among in-school adolescents in Osun State, Nigeria. Methods. This was an intervention study that was carried out among in-school adolescents attending mixed secondary schools in Osun State, Nigeria. The study was in three stages: before intervention, intervention, and after intervention. The impact of peer education was evaluated twelve weeks after intervention. Data were collected using pretested semistructured questionnaires and data analysis was done with SPSS version 16. Results. At the preintervention stage, the study and control groups were similar in their sociodemographic characteristics, HIV knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices, including high risk behaviours for HIV/AIDS transmission. After the peer education intervention, those with good knowledge and positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS increased significantly from 50.0% to 86.7% and from 49.0% to 85.6%, respectively (P < 0.05). Conclusion. The study showed that peer education is effective in improving knowledge, attitude, and some preventive practices towards HIV/AIDS among in-school adolescents. Educational programmes about HIV/AIDS should therefore be designed to target this age group putting into consideration their unique characteristics.

Sexual assault among women is an important health problem in this environment. There is need for hospital based management protocol.

BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a globally accepted developmental agenda, and it is expected that everyone everywhere in the world would be aware, knowledgeable and be willing to contribute to its attainment. This study aims to assess the level of awareness, knowledge of, and attitudes towards the SDGs among members of a university community. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 450 students and staff of Osun State University, Southwestern Nigeria, selected from three of its six multi-campuses via multistage sampling. Data were collected by means of semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0. RESULTS: The mean age for the respondents was 26(10.2) years. Only 43% of the respondents were aware of the SDGs and only 4.2% had good knowledge of the SDGs. However, 56.3% had positive attitude towards it. More respondents with good knowledge of the SDGs were either acadenic staff or those have been enlightened via personal study of the SDGs or through other means. Similarly having a positive attitude was associated with being an academic staff/ high level of education as well as belonging to the middle age group. (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The awareness of and attitudes towards the SDGs was just fair. However, the level of knowledge was abysmally low, and this has serious negative implications for SDGs attainment. Pertinent individual and population-level methods of enlightening people about the SDGs must be put in place in educational settings; curricular changes are imperative.

The study revealed a gap in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS and an inappropriate sexual behaviour among respondents. Meaningful strategies, such as an innovative and culturally sensitive adolescent sexual and reproductive health programme that focuses on modification of sexual behaviour should be adopted to allow young people to prevent transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus.