Life skills education for youths can check HIV/AIDS risks: Studies

The new findings of two studies have revealed that life skills education (LSE) for vulnerable youths can protect them from risk behaviour related to HIV/AIDS, says a press release.
The studies found that the programme on LSE for youths aged between 15 and 24 years was well received by communities and the peer-based approach functioned positively among them in 12 selected districts of Dhaka and Khulna divisions.
The findings of the studies, jointly carried out by the National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP), ICDDR,B and Save the Children-USA, were disseminated at a seminar at ICDDR,B in the city on Tuesday.
The researches were conducted under 'HIV/AIDS Programme: Prevention and Strategic Responses' project, a collaborative project between the health and family welfare ministry and Save the Children-USA, supported by the Global Fund.
The studies also showed that safe sex practices improved among young people who were trained on life skills by enabling them to face critical situation using intellectual abilities.
A national survey conducted by the project in 2005 found that almost one in four unmarried Bangladeshi youths (22 percent) reported having premarital sex.
The studies suggested that 30 percent of youths had ever had premarital or extramarital sex, with a higher proportion in the urban areas (33 percent) compared to the rural areas (25 percent). The use of condoms during last sex was 56 percent among youths who had ever had sex.
However, LSE intervention improved knowledge and use of condoms among sexually active young people by more than 10 percent. The youths participating identified the 'correct steps of using condoms' and the 'drug addiction and HIV/AIDS' as the most important sessions.
Dr Hosne Ara Tahmin, additional director general of DGHS, attended the seminar as the chief guest, while Dr Ishaque Khan, line director of National AIDS/STD Programme and Stevenson Kelly, country director of Save the Children-USA, were present as the special guests.
Head of the HIV/AIDS Programme at ICDDR,B, Dr Tasnim Azim was also present.
Dr Quamrun Nahar of ICDDR,B and Ismat Bhuiya of Population Council presented the findings of their researches on 'Creating conditions for scaling up access to life skills-based sexual and reproductive health education and condom services: Strengthening safe sex decision-making', and 'Preventing HIV among youths through LSE programme: Findings from a rapid assessment study' respectively.