TREATMENT SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS FOR SEXUAL TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS AMONG SYMPTOMATIC STUDENTS. THE CASE OF HAWASSA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA, 2022: A MIXED METHOD STUDY.

<strong>Abstract</strong> Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a main public health tricky worldwide, affecting the quality of life and triggering serious illness and death. Achieving effective treatment-seeking behavior is a crucial component of disease prevention, early diagnosis, and management. Objective: To assess treatment seeking behavior and associated factors for sexual transmitted infections among symptomatic students in Hawassa College of Education, Southern Ethiopia, 2022 Methods: School-based mixed methods (cross-sectional quantitative and phenomenological qualitative) study design was employed. Prior to actual data collection a survey was conducted and 532 STIs symptomatic students were identified and among them representative 415 study participants were selected by Simple Random Sampling technique. 2 FGDs and 8 in-depth interviews were done and purposive sampling technique was employed in qualitative study. Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 then exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables significantly associated with outcome variable. Variables having significant association were identified on the basis of the Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with a 95%CI, Variables with p-value 0.05 was declared as statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of treatment seeking behaviour among students in Hawassa College of education is 47.2 %( CI 42.3-52.2). Female students were 0.165 times less likely to seek treatment for STIs compared to those male students (AOR: 0.165, 95%CI, 0.059 0.459), The odds of treatment seeking behaviour for STIs were 3 times more likely among students who not retail medication easily without prescription as compared to their counterparties (AOR: 2.976, 95%CI, 1.023-8.664). Awareness, undermining the burden, Social concern, Stigma, and economic dependency were identified in qualitative study as contributing factors for treatment seeking behaviour. Conclusion: The study identified that the majority of symptomatic students for STIs were not seek treatment in formal health system for their perceived disease, rather they retail drugs from pharmacies, so the concerned body should have control pharmacies not to vender medication without a prescription.