 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Kavita Thirumalai, MPH, Supriya Rao, MPH, Mohammad M Rahman, MD, DrPH, Thien-Nhien Luong, MPH, Aimee Reedy, MPH, and Guadalupe S Olivas, PhD. Epidemiology and Data Management Unit, Santa Clara County Public Health Department, 3003 Moorpark Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128, 408-423-0731, kavita.thirumalai@hhs.co.santa-clara.ca.us
Objective: To examine changes in sexual behavior data with STD and teen births data among high school adolescents.
Methods: Sexual behavior data from California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), a self reported school based survey, was compared with the annual county birth and STD data.
Results: Between 1997 and 2001, the percentage of high school students ever having sex decreased from 31.8% to 24.8%, using alcohol or drugs prior to sex reduced marginally from 24.6% to 23.9%, using condoms increased from 41.8% to 54%, and reporting responsible sexual behavior (condom use or abstinence) increased. In 1997, 4.1% of high school students reported getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant compared to 3.3% in 2001. However, among those sexually active 3 months preceding the survey, the proportion of students who reported having 4 or more partners increased from 8.3% in 1997 to 11.9% in 2001. During the same time frame, reported rates of STDs such as Gonorrhea and Chlamydia decreased significantly (P<0.05) among 15-17 year olds in Santa Clara County. Additionally the teen birth rates also decreased significantly (P<0.05) from 28.6/1000 births (1997) to 17.9 /1000 births (2000). However, the proportion of teenage (15-17) mothers with no prenatal care and delivering low birth weight babies increased between those 2 years.
Conclusion: Despite decreases in some sexual risk behaviors and STD rates, there still needs to be tremendous effort to meet the Healthy People 2010 Objectives for responsible sexual behavior (objective 25.11) and reduction of STD rates (objective. 25.1-25.3).
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Sexual Risk Behavior, Adolescent Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.