Search

Objective To explore the attitude of medical students to premarital sex and its association with social ecological risk factors, so as to provide scientific basis for sex education in schools and relevant departments. Methods From September to November 2021, an anonymous survey was conducted among 1 280 students from a medical college in Shanxi Province, including general demographic characteristics, socio-ecological risk factors, and attitudes toward premarital sexual behavior. Results There was 39.75 percent of the students who had a positive attitude toward premarital sex. After adjusting for general demographic characteristics, binary logistic regression analysis showed that in the household dimension, the approving rate about premarital sex of high-risk group (OR = 1.61, 95%CI: 1.01-2.54) was 1.61 times higher than in the low-risk group. In the time dimension, the approving rate about premarital sex of medium-risk group (OR = 1.57, 95%CI: 1.14-2.17) was 1.57 times more than the low-risk group, and compared with the low-risk group of the cultural dimension, the medium-risk group (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.43-2.69) and the high-risk group (OR = 4.75, 95%CI: 3.24-6.97) were positively correlated with premarital sexual attitudes, that is, the higher the approval of premarital sex is, as the risk increased. The results of WQS model analysis showed that cultural dimension had the most influence on medical students' attitudes towards premarital sexual behavior, accounting for 45.40%, meantime, time dimension and family dimension accounted for 15.60% and 14.40%, respectively. Conclusion The positive attitude of medical students towards premarital sexual behavior is the result of the comprehensive effect of social and ecological risk factors. Besides the high-risk family factors and the medium-risk time factors, the medium and high-risk cultural factors increase the approval of premarital sexual behavior of medical students. Then, the cultural factors have the most influences on the outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]