Factors That Influence the Acceptance of Sexual Health Classes Among Young Pakistani Females

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: In a deeply religious country like Pakistan, where strong legal and social controls enforce conservative agendas and restrict open discussion of topics related to sex in general, formal sexual health education is almost non-existent. The absence of sex education in the school system leaves the burden of sexual health education on the shoulders of parents, rarely visited health practitioners, often poorly informed herbal medicine practitioners or a limited number of nongovernmental institutions (Khan, 2000). This paper seeks to study the factors that influence young Pakistani females' beliefs about the necessity of sexual health education and how their primary information sources on this topic affect these beliefs. This study is part of a wider research effort concentrating on women's sexual health communication in Pakistan. Using the data from this research, a health communication intervention for the target population is under development, with an aim to allow the young women to bypass most of the societal, religious, familial pressures on receiving the sexual health information they need.

Methods:  For this study, a survey instrument was administered to a convenience sample of young Pakistani female college students in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. Altogether 205 middle and upper-middle class urban young females finished the survey, the participants reported the anonymity of the survey and the female-only staff to be one of the major reasons for their candid answers.

Results: It was found that over half the respondents were sexually active and feared getting an STI, however a staggering 75.6% had never visited a gynecologist due to unawareness of possible health risks related to sexual health and personal ignorance. It was found that those who considered their mothers to be their primary source of sexual health information had the most rigidly conservative and counterproductive views on sexual health education. Regardless of any other factor however, the most credible direct information source reported was doctors or nurses and the most important mediated source reported by a majority of 89.3% was the internet.

Conclusions:  The results of this study suggest that there is a need for a new information source in Pakistan that would deliver targeted credible sexual health information to young females. The fact that the internet was overwhelmingly considered the most important mediated information source and doctors and nurses were considered the most important direct source, paves the way for a new communication source that is an amalgamation of the two, with the accessibility and anonymity of the internet and the credibility of the doctors.

Implications for research and/or practice:  The results of this study are likely to address a significant gap in original research on beliefs related to sexual health education in Pakistan and other conservative Muslim cultures, providing a valuable bed of information for future researchers and health intervention designers to build on. The larger research effort that this study forms a part of, and the resulting health communication intervention currently under development, will hopefully improve the uptake of future sexual health based development programs in Pakistan and other Muslim countries.