Excerpt from Forbes Magazine article on the study:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/01/26/hscout523654.html
An earlier survey had found that half of all deaths in the United States in 1990 were attributable to nine risk factors that included sexual behavior. That category alone accounted for 30,000 deaths. The researchers behind the new study didn't think this provided a complete picture of the health toll, given that sexually transmitted diseases are associated with other problems such as infertility, psychological trauma and stigma.
They set out to quantify the public health burden of sexually transmitted diseases in 1998 by looking at national data on sexual health and reproduction, surveillance systems for infectious diseases, hospital and outpatient statistics, birth and death records as well as published research.
They then calculated "adverse health consequences," such as infertility, cervical cancer, and HIV infections. They also factored in premature deaths and "disability adjusted life years" (DALYs), a figure indicating years of life cut short by premature death and loss of healthy living years as a result of disability.
In 1998, sexual behavior accounted for about 20 million "adverse health consequences" (equivalent to more than 7,500 per 100,000 people) and 29,782 deaths (or 1.3 percent of all deaths in the United States), the study found.
Sixty-two percent of the "adverse health consequences" and 57 percent of "disability adjusted life years" were among women. Curable infections and their consequences accounted for more than half of these health problems. Viral infections -- mostly HIV/AIDS -- and their consequences accounted for almost all deaths among men and women.
In terms of percentages, more men (66 percent) than women died due to sexually transmitted diseases. But if HIV/AIDS were not considered, then 89 percent of deaths attributed to sexual behavior would have been among women.
HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death among men, while cervical cancer and HIV/AIDS were the leading causes of death among women.
These estimates are probably conservative, the authors stated.