Medical Students Indicate the Need for Increased Sexuality Education at an Austrian Medical University

Abstract

Introduction: The quantity and quality of education in the field of human sexuality vary greatly in medical education programs in the United States and Europe. Aim: The current state of medical school education with regard to human sexuality was assessed at an Austrian medical university. Methods: Self-constructed questionnaires and the Beliefs About Sexual Functioning Scale were filled out by 391 medical students (mean age = 24.0, SD = 2.5; 52.4% women, 47.6% men). Descriptive statistics are reported for summarizing students’ responses, and structural equation models were calculated to reveal associations between variables of interest. Main Outcome Measures: The outcome variable in the structural equation models was students’ confidence in addressing sexual health concerns of patients. Results: Most students were not instructed in sexual history taking (96.9%), sexual behavior (94.3%), love (97.4%) or sexuality in elderly persons (95.1%), and they reported having poor knowledge of these topics. Most students (72.5%) reported having little or no confidence in addressing patients’ sexual health concerns. The number of addressed topics was positively associated with male (β = 0.47, P < .001) and female students’ (β = 0.52, P < .001) knowledge. Knowledge was positively associated with male (β = .49, P < 0.001) and female students’ (β = 0.33, P < .001) confidence in addressing sexual health concerns and was negatively associated with stereotypical sexual functioning beliefs in the male subsample (β = −0.26, P = .009). Conclusions: Most medical students revealed that the teaching of important sexual health content (eg, sexual history taking) was deficient at this medical university. Education in sexual health issues needs to be increased to positively influence students’ knowledge of and consequently their confidence regarding dealing with patients’ sexual health concerns.Komlenac N, Siller H, Hochleitner M. Medical Students Indicate the Need for Increased Sexuality Education at an Austrian Medical University. Sex Med 2019;7:318–325. Key Words: Medical Education, Austria, Medical Students, Knowledge About Sexual Medicine, Beliefs About Sexual Functioning, Sexuality Education