The knowledge, education and behaviour of young people with regard to Chlamydia trachomatis in Aarhus, Denmark and Bonn, Germany: do prevention concepts matter?

Young people are at high risk of sexually transmitted infections, especially Chlamydia trachomatis, the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the developed world. Young people lack knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and are more aware of the risks of unwanted pregnancy than their risk of acquiring a STD. Different STD prevention concepts in different countries focus on different STDs. Based on explorative data analysis (Categorical Principal Component Analysis, CatPCA) this study, conducted in 2005, investigates the associations between self-estimation of sexual knowledge, active knowledge of chlamydia and HIV/AIDS, differing sex education and the sexual behaviour of 15-19 year old pupils from Aarhus, Denmark (N = 97), and Bonn, Germany (N = 93). A constructed knowledge, education and behaviour space model shows interesting associations between active STD knowledge and the sex education provided by both media and professionals. Sexual behaviour depends especially on sex education acquired through TV, Internet and print media. The young people from Aarhus and Bonn have significantly differing knowledge levels of chlamydia and HIV/AIDS. This is understood to be an effect of the different STD prevention concepts in Denmark and Germany. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.