The Prevalence of Risky Sexual Behaviors and Awareness of STDs Among Temporary Residents of Homeless Shelters in Tehran

Background: Risky sexual behaviors expose people to sexual transmitted diseases. These behaviors are usually common among homeless people, so educational programs would help them to avoid high risk behaviors. Understanding STD awareness and the common types of risky behaviors among homeless people would provide a good context for designing appropriate educational plans. Aim: This study was performed to evaluate the STD awareness and the prevalence of risky behaviors among temporary residents of homeless shelters in Tehran. Methods: This descriptive survey performed in 2017. The standard sample size was 306. Random sampling was adopted. A questionnaire containing 45 questions was used. The questionnaire had four categories including demographic data, STD awareness, risky sexual behaviors and opinion poll. For calculating descriptive statistics IBM SPSS Statistics v21. software was exerted. Results: The level of awareness among 80% of the cases was so poor and the most known STD was hepatitis B. About 64% percent of the cases had low literacy and all had at least one of the high risk behaviors. Violent sexual behavior was the most common trait and homosexual relationship was the least. Conclusion: Several factors endangering homeless people, including low level of knowledge about risky behaviors, being in a sexually active age range, illiteracy and attempting a high number of risky sexual behaviors. This study showed homeless shelters need codification of appropriate training workshops based on the level of awareness for each disease with considering illiteracy among homeless people.