76 https://oamjms.eu/index.php/mjms/index Scientifc Foundation SPIROSKI, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences. 2022 Jan 02; 10(G):76-79. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2022.7813 eISSN: 1857-9655 Category: G - Nursing Section: Nursing in Internal Medicine Integrative Counseling could Enhance Knowledge and Attitudes of Women Sex Workers about Sexually Transmitted Infections Kamsatun Kamsatun 1 , Atin Karjatin 2 , Gurid Pramintarto Eko Mulyo 3 * 1 Department of Nursing, Poltekkes Kemenkes Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; 2 Department of Health Promotion, Poltekkes Kemenkes Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; 3 Department of Nutrition, Poltekkes Kemenkes Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia Abstract BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are preventable and treatable diseases. Female sex workers are more susceptible to contracting STIs. Successful prevention of STIs will not be achieved without community involvement and patient compliance in implementing prevention programs. AIM: The study aimed to analyze the efect of integrative counseling on knowledge and attitudes about STIs. METHODS: This type of research is a quasi-experiment with a pre-post test two-group design. The population was female sexual workers (FSW) at the Mawar PKBI clinic in Bandung City. The number of samples per group was 28 people. The sampling technique was the purposive sampling technique. The knowledge and attitude instruments used a questionnaire. Diferences in knowledge and attitudes pre and post-test in the treatment and control groups used the dependent t-test. The efect of integrative counseling on knowledge and attitudes was used in the independent t-test. RESULTS: This study showed that the intervention group’s mean ability before and after integrative counseling increased higher than the control group. The statistical test results showed that the value of p = 0.000, meaning that at 5% alpha, there was a signifcant diference in the mean knowledge between the intervention group and the control group. p <α (0.05), so statistically, there is a signifcant efect of integrative counseling on knowledge about STIs. The mean of attitudes before and after integrative counseling in the intervention group increased more than in the control group. The statistical test results showed that the value of p = 0.000, meaning that at 5% alpha, there was a signifcant diference in the average attitude between the intervention and control groups. p < α (0.05), so statistically, integrative counseling signifcantly afects attitudes about STIs. CONCLUSION: Suggestions for the Mawar Clinic PKBI, Bandung City, West Java, and Indonesia can facilitate counseling to FSW using modules so that knowledge and attitudes can be increased so that they can improve STI prevention behavior. Edited by: Sasho Stoleski Citation: Kamsatun K, Karjatin A, Mulyo GPE. Integrative Counseling could Enhance Knowledge and Attitudes of Women Sex Workers about Sexually Transmitted Infections. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2022 Jan 02; 10(G):76-79. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2022.7813 Keywords: Integrative counseling; Female sexual workers; Sexually transmitted infections *Correspondence: Gurid Pramintarto Eko Mulyo, Department of Nutrition, Poltekkes Kemenkes Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. E-mail: kamsatun70@gmail.com Received: 05-Nov-2021 Revised: 22-Nov-2021 Accepted: 19-Dec-2021 Copyright: © 2022 Kamsatun Kamsatun, Atin Karjatin, Gurid Pramintarto Eko Mulyo Funding: This research did not receive any fnancial support Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist Open Access: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) Introduction Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are one of the causes of health, social and economic problems in many countries. Nearly 500 million new cases of STIs occur each year worldwide. Most of these STIs are preventable and treatable diseases [1]. The 2007 Integrated Biological Behavioral Surveillance results in six Indonesian cities (Medan, Batam, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Malang) indicated several key fndings. STI rates are high among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, especially commercial sex. MSM tend to have multiple sex partners, both male, and female, and many of them also buy and sell sex. Consistent condom use remains low. The level of knowledge about preventing HIV transmission and other STIs was medium to high in six cities, but overall knowledge was lower [1]. STI control programs have been implemented, starting from frst-level health facilities to advanced health facilities. Successful management of infectious infection prevention will not be achieved without patient involvement and compliance in carrying out the prevention program. The involvement of patients and the support of health workers are needed to increase awareness in eforts to prevent STIs so that other impacts such as HIV can be prevented. The results showed an efect of counseling on increasing knowledge of FSW about STIs in Cadas Pangeran, Sumedang Regency, West Java, Indonesia [2]. Predisposing factors associated with the incidence of STIs are knowledge and attitudes. Following adaptation theory, good knowledge will at least encourage someone to behave and behave well. A person’s attitude about STIs can be infuenced by the knowledge they have. Raisyifa’s research results illustrate the lack of awareness of women sex workers to protect