Are British soldiers adequately prepared to make safe sexual health decisions when deployed to areas with high HIV prevalence?

Conclusions This study highlights that soldiers deploying on exercise in BATUK are inadequately prepared to make safe sexual health decisions. This raises the need for further research to understand soldiers’ understanding of high-risk sexual behaviours. This will inform the revised content of the sexual health brief required to improve the sexual health of soldiers and units deployed to BATUK, improve operational effectiveness, improve the reputation of the British Army and reduce the likelihood of sexually transmitted diseases being spread. Further research should also consider factors such as peer pressure and ‘unit culture’, and how this could impact soldiers’ understanding of sexual health, magnifying positive attitudes and mitigating negative ones.
Source: Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Original research Source Type: research