Assignment: POPULATION STUDY

Assignment: POPULATION STUDY

Assignment: POPULATION STUDY

Population Study: Adolescents of Age 14-24 Years

Population study typically refers to a study of a group of individuals that is taken from the general population, have similar characteristics, for example, health condition, sex or age. There are several reasons for taking such studies related to such a specific group, and this may include the risk of contracting a disease or response to a drug. Examples of such study groups include school going age adolescents, newborn babies, pregnant women between the age of 20 and 40 years, aged population, among others.

Awareness and Knowledge of HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases among Adolescents of Age 14-24 Years

HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted diseases, constitutes the largest portion of health cases affecting the youths globally. Such diseases if not taken care of may lead to more complicated cases in future such as cancer, AIDS, infertility, among other cases. Such cases occur mostly in youths due to a vulnerability to which they are exposed to. And thus, there is need to create awareness as well as health education among such school-going adolescents so as to reduce these cases (Berglund, 2001).

Criteria for Inclusion

For this kind of study group, it should include all school attending students of ages between 14 years and 24 years, should be conducted and published between 1990 and 2015, be a cross-sectional studies, the studies should focus on knowledge as well as awareness of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among the adolescents, and lastly the studies should have measurement of knowledge or awareness (Health protection Surveillance Centre, 2005).

Exclusion Criteria

The exclusion criteria should include case reports, non-specific risk groups (such as the drug users, homosexuals, etc.), studies that seek to evaluate intervention programs, review, expert opinions, editorials, letters, and studies that are mainly on sexual activities and or behaviors.

The study group should be chosen randomly and be done majorly by targeting the institutions of learning where there is a normal distribution of such youths. In this manner, the results obtained will likely be accurate since the equal distribution represents the reality about the population.

Risk Factors: Health risk factors includes young adolescents who are exposed to sex and possess little knowledge and awareness concerning safe sex. In targeting such population, it should be taken into account that there could be an increase in the number of infections facing adolescents of age between 14 and 18 years (World Health Organisation, 2001).

Demographics: The population understudies will include all young adolescents both girls and boys falling under the age bracket that has been considered for the study.

Socio-economics: Knowledge and awareness of sexually transmitted diseases will majorly depend upon social and economic states of the countries or the population involved in the studies. Adolescents who come from poor regions are more vulnerable since there is a lack of resource to create awareness among the population leaving them with little knowledge about the same. In this manner, there will be the likelihood of increased numbers of new infections and spread of the sexually transmitted diseases, unlike rich countries or populations. Also, some culture practices in some regions pose greater risks for infections and spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (Panchaud, 2000).

Environmental hazards: there exist less or no environmental problems concerning this type of population study since there is no direct relationship between it and the environment.

References

Berglund, T., Fredlund, H., & Giesecke, J. (Feb 2001). Epidemiology of the re-emergence of gonorrhea in Sweden. Sex Transm Dis, 28(2):111-4.

Health protection Surveillance Centre. (Dec 20, 2005). Surveillance of STI: A Report by the Sexually Transmitted Infections Subcommittee for the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Dublin, Ireland: Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Retrieved from https://www.hpsc.ie/A-Z/HIVSTIs/SexuallyTransmittedInfections/Publications/File,1437,en.pdf

Panchaud, C., Singh, S., Feivelson, D., Darroch, J. E. (2000). Sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents in developed countries. Fam Plan Persp, 32: 24-32 & 45

World Health Organization, (2001). Global prevalence and incidence of selected curable sexually transmitted infections. Geneva: WHO. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/sti/who_hiv_aids_2001.02.pdf