It appears when it comes to sexual health, Canadian students are not as wise as they might think.
A survey by a condom maker and the non-profit SIECCAN (Sex Information and Education Council of Canada) finds while most young adults say they take their sexual health seriously, only about half reported using a condom during their most recent sexual intercourse.
What's more, while many claimed they were knowledgeable about sexual health, most respondents of a knowledge-based test questionnaire got only about half of the questions correct.
For example, a full 23 per cent of the students mistakenly believed that a vaccine to prevent HIV is now available, while another 21 per cent reported they didn't know whether one existed.
The Trojan/SIECCAN Sexual Health Study, conducted by Leger Marketing, surveyed 1,500 university students between ages of 18 and 24 across Canada.
It found that 64 per cent of the students have had a sexual encounter within the past year, with 72 per cent of those respondents engaging in intercourse during that last encounter.
Robin Milhausen, a sexual health expert and an associate professor at the University of Guelph, says she was surprised how few of the respondents said they used condoms the last time they had sex.
She says only 10 per cent reported not using any birth control method at all, which suggests the rest were relying on hormonal forms of birth control.
That's concerning, since birth control pills cannot prevent herpes or other sexually-transmitted infections. Milhausen says she suspects that many of these students who are not using condoms think their risk for an STI infection is low.
"Students are not concerned about STIs because some of the most common ones have no symptoms. So they think, 'It can't happen to me,' or they think they don't know anyone with an STI," she told CTV News Channel.
"And the biggest things we have to let them know as educators is: 'in fact, you are at risk.' Rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia are quite high and, in some cases, rising. They often have no symptoms but they can lead to infertility," Milhausen said.
It's important, says Milhausen, to remind sexually active university students that pregnancy may not be their most proximal concern: it's STI protection.
The survey revealed that a full 62 per cent of respondents ranked their knowledge of sexual health as "excellent" or "very good." And yet, 74 per cent scored five out of 10 or lower on the knowledge quiz.
"So there are still gaps in knowledge, for sure," said Milhausen.
When asked how many sexual partners the students had had in the last year, the most common response was one. Milhausen notes though that students tend to change partners often, so even if they're having only new partner a year, those partners can add up, even if they happen one at a time.
She says it's important to continue to remind university students of the importance of condoms in maintaining health.
"They may know that condoms are effective, but getting the motivation and the skills to negotiate condom use, especially in longer-term relationships, is an area to work on," she says.
