Predictors of self‐reported sexually transmitted infections among Turkish university students

OpenAlex İngilizce

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are among the most crucial health problems that sexually active university students may encounter. This study aims to identify the predictors of self-reported STIs among university students. METHODS: Study participants were 2,241 individuals who reported having had sexual intercourse among a cohort of 9,693 students surveyed from 21 Turkish universities. The age of participants ranged from 17 years to 28 years. RESULTS: The Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) analysis indicated that gender was the main predictor of self-reported STI. Also, number of partners and substance use were found as predictor variables for males. Finally, the classification accuracy of the CHAID model was found to be 95.3% within the sample. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings shed light on risk factors for STI acquisition, suggesting possible directions for tailoring future preventive interventions.