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Teaching adolescents about condoms
September 18, 2007Teaching adolescents to use condoms when abstinence fails is a reasonable strategy for preventing HIV, according to a new research study in PLoS Medicine.
This finding might appear common sense, but the best way to teach HIV prevention to young people has in fact has been controversial. The "abstinence-only" approach, favored in recent years by US government-sponsored programs, reflects the notion that teaching adolescents anything about safer sex (including condom use) might encourage risky activity. However, recent studies have found that abstinence-only programs have failed to reduce HIV risk.
Do "abstinence-plus" programs, which present safer sex as an option when abstinence fails, reduce risk or just confuse the issue"
To answer this question, Kristen Underhill and colleagues screened over 20,000 research reports to identify 39 studies of abstinence-plus programs including more than 37,000 North American youth, typically in schools, community facilities, and healthcare settings. They found that 23 of these reports showed a beneficial effect on at least one sexual behavior reported by the participating adolescents, including increased abstinence, more condom use, and less unprotected sex. No report found that participants who were taught "abstinence plus" increased their risk by starting to have sex at an earlier age, or by decreasing their condom use when they did have sex. The study also found limited evidence that some abstinence-plus programs can reduce pregnancy rates among teenage girls.
Overall, the study suggests that abstinence-plus approaches do not undermine program messages encouraging abstinence, nor do they undermine program messages encouraging safer sex.
In a commentary accompanying the research article, HIV prevention researchers Shari L. Dworkin and John Santelli point out that abstinence-plus programs have been excluded from US funding allocated for abstinence-based programs. They note that US government promotion of abstinence-only programs has created disarray in efforts to prevent HIV in developing countries.
Public Library of Science
To answer this question, Kristen Underhill and colleagues screened over 20,000 research reports to identify 39 studies of abstinence-plus programs including more than 37,000 North American youth, typically in schools, community facilities, and healthcare settings. They found that 23 of these reports showed a beneficial effect on at least one sexual behavior reported by the participating adolescents, including increased abstinence, more condom use, and less unprotected sex. No report found that participants who were taught "abstinence plus" increased their risk by starting to have sex at an earlier age, or by decreasing their condom use when they did have sex. The study also found limited evidence that some abstinence-plus programs can reduce pregnancy rates among teenage girls.
Overall, the study suggests that abstinence-plus approaches do not undermine program messages encouraging abstinence, nor do they undermine program messages encouraging safer sex.
In a commentary accompanying the research article, HIV prevention researchers Shari L. Dworkin and John Santelli point out that abstinence-plus programs have been excluded from US funding allocated for abstinence-based programs. They note that US government promotion of abstinence-only programs has created disarray in efforts to prevent HIV in developing countries.
Public Library of Science
Condoms Current Events and Condoms News RSSMore at-risk teens and young adults engaging in anal intercourse
A new study by researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center suggests that the incidence of heterosexual anal sex is increasing among teens and young adults - particularly those who have recently had unprotected vaginal sex.
Who has sex with whom? Study of heterosexual partnerships reveals worryingly low condom use
A high proportion of people are not using condoms when they have sex with a new partner, according to a new study of heterosexual partnerships among British men and women. Among people in their 30s and 40s, and in partnerships where there is an age difference of five or more years, condom use is particularly low.
New HIV-reduction initiative takes to the fields
Education has found its way onto the soccer fields of North Carolina - in the form of a social experiment that may have all the right ingredients to change the direction of Latino health in the United States.
New research on family-based HIV prevention presented at annual NIH conference
Researchers from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center (BHCRC) presented exciting new research today at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Annual International Research Conference on the Role of Families in Preventing and Adapting to HIV/AIDS.
Teens' failure to use condoms linked to partner disapproval, fear of less sexual pleasure
Approximately one in four teens in the United States will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Neutral HIV presentations more likely to be considered inviting, study finds
A recent study by University of Illinois professor of psychology Dolores Albarracín and her colleagues at the University of Florida and the Alachua County Health Department in Florida found a method to increase enrollment among high-risk individuals in HIV prevention programs.
Education needed to decrease teens' misconception about emergency contraception
Targeted health education may help urban, minority adolescent women better understand how the emergency contraception pill works and eliminate some misconceptions about side effects, confidentiality and accessibility, according to a study by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Male circumcision efforts lag in Africa despite evidence of dramatic impact in preventing HIV
With millions of lives at stake over the next two decades, researchers and advocates at the AIDS 2008 Conference today called on the global health community to ramp up male circumcision to significantly reduce risk of HIV infection in Africa, and to move quickly to integrate the life-saving procedure into other comprehensive efforts to prevent transmission of the disease in the vulnerable nations of eastern and southern Africa.
Let's talk about sex -- helping parents raise sexually healthy young people
Parenting programmes in the workplace can significantly improve parents' ability to talk with their children about sexual health and may provide a unique way of promoting healthy adolescent sexual behaviour, concludes a study published on BMJ.com today.
Doubling of sexually transmitted infections among over-45s in under a decade
Rates of sexually transmitted infections have doubled among the over 45s in less than a decade, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
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