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Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana

While school-based comprehensive sex education (CSE) is effective in HIV prevention among young people ages 10–24 years, Ghana’s national sexual and reproductive health education policy promotes abstinence. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health’s HIV prevention programs provide more comprehensive school...

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Autores principales: Ocran, Benedict, Talboys, Sharon, Shoaf, Kimberley
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9738677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36497562
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315487
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author Ocran, Benedict
Talboys, Sharon
Shoaf, Kimberley
author_facet Ocran, Benedict
Talboys, Sharon
Shoaf, Kimberley
author_sort Ocran, Benedict
collection PubMed
description While school-based comprehensive sex education (CSE) is effective in HIV prevention among young people ages 10–24 years, Ghana’s national sexual and reproductive health education policy promotes abstinence. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health’s HIV prevention programs provide more comprehensive school-based education. This qualitative study evaluated the HIV/AIDS education program in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality to assess the perspectives of students and educators in 10 schools on school-based sexual and reproductive health programs, including HIV/AIDS education and conflicting HIV/AIDS sex education policies. HIV prevalence in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of Ghana was more than twice the national average at 5.64% in 2018, and prevalence among youth in the municipality aged 15–24 was the highest in the nation at 0.8%. Educators have mixed feelings regarding abstinence-based and CSE approaches. However, students generally endorse abstinence and describe the limitations of condom use. Ambiguity in overarching policies is identified as a factor that could influence the orientation of school-based health educators, create disharmony in sex education interventions, introduce confusing sex education messages to young people, and create a potentially narrow curriculum that limits the gamut of HIV/AIDS sex education to exclude young people’s risky sexual behaviours and diverse teaching and implementation strategies. Policies and the scope of sex education should be realigned to ensure the transparent implementation of HIV/AIDS sex education programs in Ghana.
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spelling pubmed-97386772022-12-11 Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana Ocran, Benedict Talboys, Sharon Shoaf, Kimberley Int J Environ Res Public Health Article While school-based comprehensive sex education (CSE) is effective in HIV prevention among young people ages 10–24 years, Ghana’s national sexual and reproductive health education policy promotes abstinence. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health’s HIV prevention programs provide more comprehensive school-based education. This qualitative study evaluated the HIV/AIDS education program in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality to assess the perspectives of students and educators in 10 schools on school-based sexual and reproductive health programs, including HIV/AIDS education and conflicting HIV/AIDS sex education policies. HIV prevalence in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of Ghana was more than twice the national average at 5.64% in 2018, and prevalence among youth in the municipality aged 15–24 was the highest in the nation at 0.8%. Educators have mixed feelings regarding abstinence-based and CSE approaches. However, students generally endorse abstinence and describe the limitations of condom use. Ambiguity in overarching policies is identified as a factor that could influence the orientation of school-based health educators, create disharmony in sex education interventions, introduce confusing sex education messages to young people, and create a potentially narrow curriculum that limits the gamut of HIV/AIDS sex education to exclude young people’s risky sexual behaviours and diverse teaching and implementation strategies. Policies and the scope of sex education should be realigned to ensure the transparent implementation of HIV/AIDS sex education programs in Ghana. MDPI 2022-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9738677/ /pubmed/36497562 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315487 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ocran, Benedict
Talboys, Sharon
Shoaf, Kimberley
Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title_full Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title_fullStr Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title_short Conflicting HIV/AIDS Sex Education Policies and Mixed Messaging among Educators and Students in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Ghana
title_sort conflicting hiv/aids sex education policies and mixed messaging among educators and students in the lower manya krobo municipality, ghana
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9738677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36497562
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315487
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