Posted on 01/04/2011 10:14:03 AM PST by markomalley
More than 10 percent of teens who said they were abstinent also tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease, says a study in Pediatrics released Monday — a figure public health advocates say justifies screening all teens for such diseases.
Study author Jessica McDermott Sales, a research assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory University, said STD screenings should happen, regardless of what they say about their sexual histories.
"These infections can have some pretty major consequences for young people … . It's worth the urine test," she said.
The study was based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ("Add Health"), which has tracked thousands of teens and young adults for more than a decade.
In Wave 3 of Add Health, about 14,000 youth agreed to provide a urine specimen to check for three STDs — gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis.
More than 11,000 of these youth said they had had sexual intercourse in the last 12 months, while the remaining 3,000 youth reported no sexual intercourse during that time.
The STD tests came back positive for 964 youth.
The vast majority of these STD results occurred in youth who said they had had sexual intercourse in the last year.
But 118 youth who denied having sexual intercourse also tested positive for an STD. In fact, 60 of these young people said they had never had sexual intercourse in their lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
People lying about sex, and teenagers yet! Teenagers never lie about anything.
There were 6636 male participants (weighted percent: 50.9) and 7376 female participants (weighted percent: 49.1). Sixty-seven percent of the sample self-described as white (7497 [weighted percent: 67.1]) and 16.4% self-identified as black (3097 [weighted percent: 16.4]). There were 2291 Hispanics (weighted percent: 11.8), 956 Asians (weighted percent: 3.7), and 171 in all other self-described racial/ethnic categories (weighted percent: 1.0). The mean age of participants in the sample was 21.9 years (SD: 1.8 years), and 12 522 selfreported that they had graduated high school or received a general equivalency degree (weighted percent: 88.2). Overall, 11 039 (weighted percent: 79.7) reported having penile/vaginal sex with at least 1 partner in the previous 12 months. Of all wave 3 participants who provided a urine sample for STD screening, 964 (weighted percent: 6.0) tested STD-positive for at least 1 of the 3 assessed STDs. Of the STDpositive participants, 838 (weighted percent: 89.5) reported sex with at least 1 partner in the previous 12 months, 118 (weighted percent: 10.5) reported abstaining from sexual activity during the previous 12 months before assessment, and 60 of the latter participants (weighted percent: 5.9) reported never having penile/vaginal sex in their lifetime. Thus, 118 participants (more than 10% of the 964 participants who tested positive for an STD) demonstrated a discrepancy in their STD test results and self-report of recent sexual activity.
So the short version should have said 10.5% of study participants who tested positive for an STD claimed to have no sex in the previous year and 5.9% claimed to have never had sex in their lives.
Teens lie. WOW! I stand amazed, I tell you, amazed!
In the minds of these teens, if there isn't penetration then they are still being "abstinent" regardless of whether or not there is physical contact of the genitalia.
Study author Jessica McDermott Sales, a research assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Emory University, said STD screenings should happen, regardless of what they say about their sexual histories.
Another study?
Conclusion -somebody wants something.
What do they want? How about mandatory testing of all (teens) what ages exactly -they all lie -lets just say all children. MANDATORY testing for STD's regardless, the parents wishes.
Where will this happen? But of course, the community 'health clinics' -planned parenthood (abortions r us)...
What good is testing without treatment and prevention and education? OH but of course...
In my opinion, this is buy another camel's nose attempting to get into the tent...
Stated differently, teens who practice or even claim to practice abstinence are 1/2 as likely to catch STDS.
A high number of abstinent adults also test positive for pregnancy in the ER. The rule is you can’t trust people to answer questions about sex truthfully.
Or that “abstinent” girls may still benefit from Gardisil.
“More than 10 percent of teens who said they were abstinent also tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease, says a study in Pediatrics released Monday — a figure public health advocates say justifies screening all teens for such diseases.”
Which means about 90% - the vast majority - did not, a figure that shows there is little justification for a broad policy initiative to help ameliorate self-inflicted conditions of small minority.
“That seems closer to 4% than 10%.”
They became pediatricians because they didn’t need higher math skills like internists.
BS. 24% of 14-19 year olds as reported in Dunne EF, Unger ER, Sternberg M (2007). "Prevalence of HPV infection among females in the United States". JAMA 297 (8): 813–9.
Until those 10% start spreading the STDs around town.
The immaculate infection...
“”Prevalence of HPV infection among females in the United States”
Your cite is from 2000. Mine is from 2007, therefore more current. The primary sources in both are the CDC. Thanks.
Your stat only talks about grils and not girls and boys...
I was waiting for that lame argument. Even if precisely the same number of boys are afflicted as girls, the percentage would be the same. Numerator increases, denominator increases, fraction stays the same.
But what if more boys are effected than girls...
There are lies, damn lies and stats! so asking what is this number, what does it mean and how did you get it is only ‘lame’ when you have weak or incomplete numbers..
But the best part is that you are so busy trying to defend 60 or 20 or 40 that you ignore the point... Chasing your tail like a confused pup..
If a higher percent of teens who did not promise abstinence have STD’s than the number of teens who do promise abstinence that means to some degree abstinence pledges work...
The rest is figuring out just how much they work..
Or we can have it your way and just assume the little buggers are so hopped up on hormones they would screw anything that walks.. Hand out condoms, give them the nod and wink about making sex meaningful and waiting, and shooting them full of untested vaccines for diseases that everyone insisted were basically harmless (until we had a vaccine)..
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