Visitor Stats and Moral Issues
The two universities in Uppsala are having a survey on web on STD. These colleges have a student population of 27,000, 55% to 60% of whom are women. About 20% are 1st-year students. Fifty percent are below the age of 24 years, 24% are aged 25 to 29 years, and 26% are 30 or olden Linkoping, a university town more than 125 miles southwest of Uppsala, has 14,000 students and a similar student profile. The Linkoping students were the control group.During a 3-month period, the university students in Uppsala were the target for an STD-prevention program that included a mass media campaign by means of visitor statistics directed at all university students and a peer education program directed at 1st-year university students. Because of the delicacy of questioning people about sexual practices, they made every effort to ensure respondents' anonymity. All participation was voluntary, and individual identification of the questionnaires was impossible. The Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University approved the study.A project group of experts in behavioral psychology, communication, and medicine planned the intervention with 5 students (3 women and 2 men studying marketing in the Department of Business Studies). They considered it important that the campaign have a non-moralizing approach- and preserve positive attitudes toward sexuality. The campaign consisted of visual information–text and pictures, such as posters, a brochure, STD-clinic cards, cartoon advertisements, and articles in student papers. The number and kinds of information channels were planned to ensure that a majority of the students would be exposed to the prevention messages.They placed 1,000 posters in six different designs on information boards in various university departments, at the student sports center, and inside of the toilet doors of student libraries and student clubs. In designing the posters, our intention was to provide students with role models and ideas about how to initiate dialogues promoting safer sex. The posters showed models dealing with arguments in situations similar to those that students in the target groups were likely to confront. Focus groups of university students scrutinized all material produced at all stages of the planning process.They reviewed and revised the visual messages until they were received in the intended way, arousing positive attitudes and correct behavioral intentions. They used a quantitative questionnaire with semantic differentials to test the texts and pictures and to learn how the messages were understood and accepted. The main messages were (a) be careful with your fertility, (b) recognize that women often suffer more from a sexually transmitted infection than men do, (c) use condoms unless you have a steady relationship, and (d) test for STDs.Fifteen thousand copies of the 10-page brochure were placed in student libraries and the student sports center and given to students living on the two Uppsala campuses. The brochure contained information about STDs and contraceptives and told where to get STD tests. In addition, they placed baskets filled with condoms, candies, cards, and a map showing the location of the outpatient STD clinic in student libraries and at the sport center. They also set up a direct telephone line (hot line) to deal with queries and anxieties.
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