Study Finds Decreased Contraceptive Use by World’s Youth

EARTH—A multi-national survey timed to be released today, World Contraception Day (WCD), has found that worldwide the number of youth having unprotected sex with new partners is on the rise. This year’s survey, carried out between April and May 2011 on behalf of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, with fieldwork by GFK Healthcare, is the third such annual study by WCD, which launched in 2007 and takes place every Sept. 26 with the mission to “improve awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive health.” According to an announcement issued today by the WCD organizers, over 6000 youth were interviewed across 29 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Chile, Colombia, Estonia, Egypt, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, USA, and Venezuela. In most countries, the respondents ranged in age from 15 to 24, with gender split equally; In Egypt, however, “interviewees comprised 100 males and 100 females who were both married and at least 22 years old.” According to WCD, the results of the survey are more than just interesting; they provide necessary insight into the high number of unplanned pregnancies globally, particularly among young people. “Worldwide,” the organization reported, “approximately 41 percent of the 208 million pregnancies which occur each year are unintended. In addition to this, one in 20 adolescent girls gets a bacterial infection through sexual contact every year and the age at which infections are acquired is becoming younger and younger.” Key finding from the survey include: * Since 2009 the number of people having sex without contraception with a new partner has increased by 111 percent in France (from 19 percent to 40 percent), 39 percent in the USA (from 38 percent to 53 percent) and by 19 percent in Great Britain (from 36 percent to 43 percent). * On average, only half of young people surveyed across Europe (55 percent) receive sex education in school compared to three quarters across Latin America (78 percent), Asia Pacific (76 percent) and the USA (74 percent)—bearing in mind that much U.S. "sex education" is exclusively "abstinence-only" education. * Over half of the young people surveyed in China, Estonia, Kenya, Korea, Norway and Thailand reported having had unprotected sex with a new partner at least once. * In Egypt 36 percent of men and women believe that bathing or showering after sex is an effective form of contraception. Having sex during menstruation is considered an effective way to prevent a pregnancy by more than a quarter of respondents in Thailand (28 percent) and India (26 percent). * 42 percent of respondents in Asia Pacific and 28 percent in Europe who could not get hold of contraception when they needed it claimed it was because they were too embarrassed to ask a healthcare professional. * 22 percent of young people across Asia Pacific, 20 percent across Europe and 14 percent in Latin America said that their school does not provide a comfortable environment for questions on sexuality and intimacy. Comments from health professionals included with the release of the findings address a startling lack of information and/or personal empowerment among young people that has apparently resulted in the decrease in safe sex practices, most notably the use of barriers to conception, with many respondents saying they had trouble obtaining contraceptives where they live or go to school, or felt too embarrassed to seek out same from health care providers. Lack of appropriate sex education also is a problem globally, according to the study’s results. In Europe, for instance, only half of the respondents receive any sex education at all. The percentages are much higher in Latin America (78 percent), Asia Pacific (76 percent) and the USA (74 percent), but “even in areas where young people are more likely to receive sex education, there are reports of teachers providing information about contraception that the respondents later realized was inaccurate or untrue… or of the environment at school not being conducive to asking questions about sexuality and intimacy…” Not surprisingly, then, the study found that with the exception of Egypt, Kenya and Uganda, websites and blogs provide the main sources of information about contraception for the vast majority of respondents. A bit more surprisingly, there is no mention made in the study or the attendant comments about the role that sexually explicit material plays in the attitudes of youth regarding their sexual behavior. But clearly, one can read into the comments made about the lack of accurate information available to young people an inference that included in the websites and blogs being visited by youth are ones catering to explicit sexual content. “What young people are telling us is that they are not receiving enough sex education or the wrong type of information about sex and sexuality,” commented Jennifer Woodside of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, an NGO partner of WCD. “It should not come as a surprise then that the result is many young people having unprotected sex and that harmful myths continue to flourish in place of accurate information. How can young people make decisions that are right for them and protect them from unwanted pregnancy and STIs, if we do not empower them and enable them to acquire the skills they need to make those choices?” Somewhat ironically, the adult entertainment industry itself is currently embroiled in a battle with the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation over the issue of mandatory condom use by performers appearing in adult videos. Though many people in the industry are  proponents for the use of condoms by performers, along with a rigorous testing regime, the industry as a whole has been fighting to prevent the government or any other entity from requiring their use. If it has not done so already, one can expect AHF to jump on the findings from this study as yet another reason to mandate barrier protection on porn sets. It should be noted again, however, that the study itself does not implicate the adult entertainment industry as a factor in the declining rates of safe sex among the world’s youth, but rather argues strongly for providing more and better sex education, as well as unfettered access to contraceptives without any moral judgment attached to it. One could read into that outlook a deep-seated belief by the authors that the vast majority of young people around the world will make the right decisions for themselves assuming they have the information and skills necessary to do so.