News May

Safe sex messages in schools failing: study

Better strategies are needed to prevent unwanted pregnancies,
HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases because safe sex messages in schools are not changing risky behavior, researchers in Mexico said on Friday.

They found that programs promoting the importance of using condoms or the benefits of abstinence improved students' knowledge but had little impact on the measures they took to protect themselves.

"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that current HIV prevention efforts based in schools do not alter sexual risk behavior," said Dilys Walker, of the National Institute of Public Health in Morelos, Mexico.

The researchers analyzed the effect of different HIV prevention programs on nearly 11,000 students in 40 public high schools in Mexico.

In 15 schools the program promoted the use of a condom. Students in 15 other schools were told about condoms and emergency contraception and 10 schools, which acted as a control group, had the standard sex education course.

All the pupils were questioned at the beginning of the program and four and 16 months later, to determine changes in their behavior.

The researchers found no long-term influence on the use of condoms or sexual behavior but students who received information about emergency contraception -- the morning-after pill -- reported increased use.

They suggested combining the promotion of condoms and emergency contraception in the same program because it did not increase risky sexual behavior in the students.

"Innovative approaches designed to decrease adolescent risk behavior are urgently needed," Walker said in the report in the British Medical Journal.

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060518