Modern contraception and venereal disease.
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OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate that rephrasing the questions used to assess childbearing intentions to quantify the strength of the intent to remain nonpregnant, rather than the strength of the intent to become pregnant, would make teenagers' responses more useful to health care providers, family planning counselors, and health policy makers. METHODS: Examples from the teen pregnancy prevention literature are used to support the recommendations for change. RESULTS: Teenagers rarely plan their pregnancies. However, because those who are having sexual intercourse must actively try not to become pregnant or they will likely conceive, teenagers often become pregnant because they lack a firm commitment not to do so. Thus, to accurately profile the antecedents of adolescent pregnancy, (1) the questions used to assess childbearing intentions must be rephrased so that teenagers who intend to remain nonpregnant can be distinguished from those who do not and (2) separate differential diagnoses must be developed for inconsistent contraceptive use within these 2 groups of teenagers who are at risk for unintended pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Asking sexually active teenagers about the strength of their intent to remain nonpregnant will make the results of office interviews and national surveys more useful because the responses such questions elicit will enable health care providers and policy makers to target common, modifiable antecedents of inconsistent contraceptive use for interventions.
Prior to implementing a change in school clinic policy to allow dispensing of contraceptives, parents of school-based clinic (SBC) enrollees were surveyed regarding attitudes toward clinic quality of care, desired services, and contraceptive distribution. Telephone interviews were conducted with a systematic sample of 262 parents who normally are in charge of the adolescent's health care. Parental opinion was felt to be crucial in shaping Baltimore SBC contraception policy. Parents overwhelmingly endorsed current clinic services including family planning for sexually active teens, annual physicals, and drug and alcohol counseling. Most parents rated the SBC as excellent (25%) or very good (36%), although a substantial minority found it difficult to rate the clinics (27%, "don't know"). Parents with prior verbal contact (45%) were more likely to rate the clinic as excellent (35% versus 16%) and less likely to respond "don't know" (13% versus 38%, p less than 0.001). Parent attitudes toward contraception was context specific: 63% endorsed and 27-30% opposed prescribing and dispensing. If a boy (or girl) was already having sex, 76% (or 75%) of parents supported and 14% (or 17%) opposed providing birth control pills or condoms. With parental permission, 93% supported contraception and only 3% were opposed. No differences were found by age, race, gender, or grade of student. Prior verbal communication with the clinic did not affect parent attitudes toward contraception. Consideration of parent attitudes was critical to changing SBC contraceptive dispensing policy in Baltimore. Contraceptive distribution, after counseling and necessary medical care, was initiated in September 1990. The parent and community response has been very supportive.
PURPOSE: To study the distribution, prevalence, determinants, and association between the health, social, and environmental concerns and risk behaviors of high school students in Jerusalem in order to provide a better basis for preventive and health promotion services. METHODS: 1078 tenth grade high school students, 15-16 years old answered an anonymous questionnaire including, perceived concerns and risk behaviors, (e.g., smoking, alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity). Concerns were grouped into six domains. RESULTS: The most frequently reported concerns related to school, weight, coping with aggression, fatigue, war, enlistment into army, and relationships with peers. Girls had more concerns in the domains of self-image, anxiety, and relationships with peers (p < .05). Adolescents with mothers who had less education had significantly more concerns in the domains of anxiety and relationships with peers and adults (p < .05). Forty-seven percent engaged in at least one risk behavior (boys 63% and girls 34%). The Guttman scalogram indicated the following sequence of risk behaviors: alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and drugs. There were statistically significant associations between concerns and risk behaviors in the domains of anxiety, sex, and relationships with adults and peers. CONCLUSION: Many adolescent concerns are universal, although the ranking and prevalence may vary based on different regional and population characteristics (e.g., in this population a high rate of concerns relating to aggression and war were identified). The results support the need to develop prevention and health promotion programs relating to the concerns and risk behaviors in the school and community, and individual counseling programs in primary care settings.
PURPOSE: To determine where adolescents obtain their condoms; the availability and accessibility of condoms; condom availability in relationship to different sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates; and the availability of safer sex information in places where condoms are sold. METHODS: We conducted a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 259 14-19-year-old adolescents in Monroe County, New York. Self-reported health services use, knowledge and use of confidential services, and where adolescents obtained or intended to obtain condoms were assessed. Research assistants visited all retail establishments in five areas of similar population size with gonorrhea rates from 887 to 12,427 per 100,000 adolescents to assess how available and accessible condoms were in each store. Perceived access and actual condom availability and accessibility were compared using Chi-square and Student's t-tests. RESULTS: Trained interviewers dialed 11,800 numbers in 1993, identifying 4449 (40%) households among 11,065 numbers reached successfully. Of these, 393 (8.8%) had eligible adolescents and 259 (66%) completed interviews. Most adolescents reported obtaining, or planning to obtain, condoms in stores rather than from free health care settings. Adolescents who have used condoms more often reported having obtained them without cost than having purchased them. Condoms were available at 101 (83%) of 122 stores identified. All drug stores and 75% of supermarkets sold condoms and displayed them openly. Most small grocery stores also sold condoms (92%), but were less likely to openly display them. No stores displayed or provided safer sex information. Areas with higher STD rates had more stores (p <.01), and more stores that sold condoms (p <.01). There was no difference in condom cost by area. CONCLUSIONS: Many adolescents obtain their condoms in retail stores. Condom accessibility varied by store type and area STD rate. Increasing condom visibility in private grocery stores may increase the accessibility of condoms to adolescents in areas with highest STD rates.
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Adolescents are the focus of many interventions that aim to prevent HIV transmission. In order for these interventions to be effective, it is essential to understand adolescents' sexual behaviour. Using data collected in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1997, the study analysed risk exposure and HIV prevalence among 426 men and 510 women aged 15-24. Although risky behaviours seem to be more prevalent among young men, their HIV prevalence remains under 1%. In contrast, HIV prevalence is high among young women (7.5%), even those who report having had few sexual partners. Mixing patterns among sexual partners, and especially the age difference between men and women, do not seem to be sufficient to explain the large male-female discrepancy in HIV prevalence that is evident in these data. The results are therefore probably due to a greater susceptibility to infection of young women than men. This study highlights the necessity of reinforcing prevention campaigns among youth and fighting the obstacles that continue to impede the use of condoms in this population.
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BACKGROUND: Spanish-dominant Latino youth represent a growing yet underserved segment of the U.S. population, especially in terms of protection from sexually transmitted HIV infection. There is evidence to suggest that this subgroup engages in both risk and protective behaviors that may be different from the behaviors of English-dominant Latino youth. OBJECTIVE: To examine theoretical predictors (attitude, subjective norm, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, control beliefs) of sexual intercourse and condom use with a sample of Spanish-dominant Latino youth. METHODS: Participants in this study were part of a larger randomized controlled intervention designed to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted HIV among Latino youth. This article is based on preintervention data from 141 Spanish-speaking Latino adolescents (77 girls and 64 boys) who completed a Spanish version of the questionnaire. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses showed significant effects of attitudes, perceived partner approval, self-pride, and parental pride on intentions to engage in sexual intercourse. Attitudes, intentions to engage in sex in the next 3 months, self-pride, parental pride, goals, and partner approval predicted sexual intercourse in the preceding 3 months. Attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, partner and parental approval, and impulse control beliefs were significant predictors of intentions to use condoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents initial efforts to address the needs of Spanish-dominant Latino youth. The identification of salient beliefs that may predict sexual risk and protective behavior are relevant to the design of culturally and linguistically effective interventions.
A psychosocial perspective on adolescent risk behavior is used to highlight aspects of psychological development and social environment that are relevant to sexual activity and substance use. Differences in behavior are also related to factors such as age and gender that have biological, developmental, and demographic implications. Sexual activity and substance use increase during adolescence, and are often interrelated. In the USA in 1992, 69% of 8th graders and 88% of 12th graders had drunk alcohol. In 1990, 54% of high school students had had sexual intercourse. Age of sexual initiation has decreased in recent cohorts, but condom use by adolescents has increased, with 35% of 15-19-year-old women reporting using condoms. Interventions that successfully change adolescent risk behavior take account of the teen's level of development and social context.
This study uses survey and focus-group data from the 1995-96 Negotiating Reproductive Outcomes study in Uganda to describe the nature of the decision to stop childbearing and to question the simplifying assumption of consensus decision-making implicit in much demographic research on unmet need. Negotiation is characterized in four stages, from normative precedent for decision-making to communication, disagreement, and conflict resolution. Indirect forms of communication between partners predominate, contributing to the tendency of both men and women to overestimate each other's demand for additional children. Partner opposition is found to cause a statistically significant increase in unmet need reported by women and a shift in contraceptive mix favoring use of traditional methods over modern methods. For women, partner opposition may account for as much as 20 percent of unmet need in urban areas, 12 percent in rural areas, and 15 percent overall.
Teenage pregnancy is a growing social problem in the United States. Past interventive failures and current research suggest new directions for primary prevention. A comprehensive prevention program is outlined, and training techniques based on a cognitive-behavioral approach are proposed to help adolescents acquire skills necessary to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
Most of the consequences of early intercourse affect the woman and much research has focused upon her. As part of a study on teenage pregnancy, where 137 women were interviewed, 46 men were also interviewed. They were less likely to have had teaching about sex from parents and were subject to less parental supervision than the women. Both sexes had had similar experience of school sex education. Just under half of the men started having intercourse before 16 years. Over half of both sexes were initiated by an experienced partner and for 15/25 (60%) of the men this was within the first month of a relationship. Most men had had several partners and 27/99 (27%) of teenage women at least three, most in the context of stable relationships. 'Serial monogamy' exposes each partner indirectly to their partners previous partners (with the associated medical risks). Education must help teenagers make decisions about sexual involvement that take account of these facts and the implications for their own future health and happiness.
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Treatment of women patients with chronic mental illness who are at risk of unwanted pregnancies presents ethical challenges to the clinician who wishes to respect the patient's autonomy while also helping her avert the potential adverse consequences of unwanted pregnancy. The clinician who simply allows the patient to continue at risk or coerces her into using contraception may not have adequately considered the variable nature of the patient's autonomy. The authors suggest that the clinician should assess and treat conditions underlying the patient's variable impairment of autonomy to maximize her ability to participate in family planning decisions. Case examples are used to illustrate assessment of patients' decision-making capacity, development of family planning approaches that respect patients' autonomy, and use of a newly available contraceptive implant.
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Sexual risk-taking can lead to serious consequences. This study addressed the question of how sexual risk-taking was influenced by unemployment. A cohort of 1060 adolescents were followed from their last term in compulsory school and five years ahead until the age of 21. Sexual risk-taking, defined as unprotected intercourse without wishing to conceive, was studied with the help of a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the period. For men there was a positive correlation between the length of unemployment and increase in risk-taking during the period, but for women there was a (statistically non-significant) negative correlation. In a logistic regression analysis, having children also had a significant effect on increased risk-taking among men. Unemployment thus implies increased sexual risk-taking among adolescent men.