Hurley, Jazime; Izampuye, Elizabeth; Trinh, Ha (University of Utah)
Faculty Advisor: Abunuwara, Kim (Utah Valley University, integrated Studies); Dunn, Paul (Utah Valley University, Biology); Oliveira, Andre (Utah Valley University, Economics)
Globally, college students have the highest rates of unintended pregnancies. In Vietnam, the social stigma against pregnancy and against sex education is prevalent enough that college students turn to less reliable sources for information. Women often face scrutiny, criticism, and sometimes violence if they try to talk about contraceptives. In the United States, stigmas show in different forms. Male and female college students are informed as to what contraceptives are. But, when it comes to knowing where to access contraceptives and how to use them, resources are scarce. Paper administered surveys were distributed to college students at the University of Vietnam and the University of Utah. Questions were divided to assess the following: 1) Knowledge of basic contraceptive facts, 2) awareness about the significance of contraceptive use, 3) attitude about contraceptive use, 4) demographic information. These questions varied from "yes" and "no" to "agree" and "disagree." Results suggest that students from each university had knowledge about basic contraceptive information, as 95% of students knew at least one contraceptive method. In general, Vietnamese students were more likely to believe that contraceptive methods are more harmful than beneficial to health, use of contraceptives will increase risk of fertility in the future, and discussion about contraceptives with spouse is embarrassing. Utahan students were more likely to believe that only women take responsibility for using contraceptives, contraceptives can protect the health of family and society, and contraceptive pills do not 100% guarantee avoidance of pregnancy. These results suggest the Vietnamese students were warier of contraceptives due to limited knowledge of side effects. Students in Utah were more aware of the benefits of contraceptive use, but only to an extent. Overall, both males and female students need well-rounded education about contraceptives that I hope to implement with future projects.