Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health articles from December 2006

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health archives from December 2006

STD testing made easy.(FYI)(web site to screen sexually transmitted diseases)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... A Web-based program designed to facilitate self-administered chlamydia screening among women aged 14 and older received overwhelmingly favorable reviews from women who used it between July 2004 and January 2005. (1) visitors to the Web site,...

New program will track HIV treatments and outcomes.(FYI)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... A new, federally financed electronic network will provide "the first formal way to track HIV/AIDS treatments and outcomes on a broad, comprehensive scale," according to the project's principal investigator. (1) Seven medical centers will...

Been there, done that; now you try.(FYI)(peer counseling program for breast-feeding)
December 1, 2006... Participation in a peer counseling program aimed at encouraging breast-feeding was associated with elevated rates of breastfeeding at 12 weeks among women who bore premature infants at an inner-city hospital in 2001-2004. (1) Specially trained...

Patch vs. pill: patch loses.(FYI)(effectiveness of contraceptive)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... The pill outperformed the contraceptive patch in terms of continuation and effectiveness in a cohort of New York State women, most of whom were at high risk for unintended pregnancy and abortion. (1) The cohort consisted of 1,230 women...

School health centers may help lower fertility.(FYI)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... An analysis of fertility rates among black adolescents in Denver suggests that school-based health centers may help teenagers avoid childbearing. Fertility declined among black teenagers throughout the country in the mid-1990s; a particularly...

Business is business--or is it?(FYI)(pregnancy clinics)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... Do "pregnancy clinics" that seek to dissuade women from having abortions really believe that their tactics are essentially just business plans? Apparently so, according to a clinic director in Maryland, quoted as saying that they set up shop...

Fly the friendly skies.(FYI)(financing United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Working with national governments, nongovernmental organizations and foundations, a new organization, UNITAID, has launched an innovative scheme to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. (1) Participating countries will levy a tax on airline...

U.S. abortion training.(FYI)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... In a 2004 survey of directors of obstetrics and gynecology residency programs, 51% of respondents said that their programs routinely provide abortion training (although residents may opt out if they have religious or moral objections), 39% that...

Can des risk be passed on?(FYI)(prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol)(Brief article)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... Certain risks associated with prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) may be carried over to the next generation, according to results of a study of 463 women whose mothers had been exposed to DES prenatally and 330 whose mothers had not...

Changes in formal sex education: 1995-2002.
December 1, 2006... Comprehensive sex education-teaching that provides balanced and accurate information on both abstinence and birth control-is a crucial part of equipping adolescents with the necessary skills to achieve healthy sexuality throughout their lives....

Social, demographic and situational characteristics associated with inconsistent use of oral contraceptives: evidence from France.(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... In France, as in most developed countries, oral contraceptives are the most popular form of reversible contraception; in 2000, 45% of French women aged 18-44 were current users. (1) When used perfectly, the pill has a [allure rate of less than...

Young teenagers and older sexual partners: correlates and consequences for males and females.
December 1, 2006... Although most teenagers believe that 16 is too young an age at which to have sex, one in four have had intercourse by that age. (1) And among sexually experienced teenagers, the youngest are the most likely to report having had an older first...

Correction.(Correction notice)
December 1, 2006... "In This Issue" in the September 2006 edition of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health stated that Diana Greene Foster and colleagues' study of pregnancies averted by California's Family PACT program included estimates of...

Acculturation and the sexual and reproductive health of Latino youth in the United States: a literature review.
December 1, 2006... Latinos in the United States have been described as a people "in flux." (1) In 2004, an estimated 40.4 million Latinos were living in the country, representing 14% of the total population. (2) Because a large proportion are of childbearing age,...

Expanding access to emergency contraception through state systems: the Washington State experience.(SPECIAL REPORT)(Washington State's Department of Health)(Department of Social and Health Services)
December 1, 2006... Access to family planning and reduction of unintended pregnancy are long-standing priorities for Washington State's Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). Working together to ensure that all pregnancies...

Urban parents, particularly those who are unmarried, frequently have children by multiple partners.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... More than a third of urban parents have children by multiple partners, and unmarried parents are more likely to report such multipartnered fertility than are married parents, according to an analysis of data from the Fragile Families and Child...

Education program design may benefit from health professionals' involvement.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... The likelihood that Texas middle school students felt that sexual involvement should be postponed at least until after high school rose significantly after the youngsters took a sex education course designed by a team from an academic medical...

In France, over-the-counter emergency contraception increases access, not risk.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... The use of emergency contraception increased in France between 1999 and 2004, following the May 1999 introduction of a dedicated product that was almost immediately available in pharmacies with no prescription requirement. (1) According to a...

Young female Medicaid enrollees seeking reproductive health services are at risk of abuse, criminal activity.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... Preadolescents and adolescents who are enrolled in Medicaid and seek reproductive health services have an elevated likelihood of being abused or engaging in criminal behavior, both before and after their reproductive health visits, according to...

Frequent male condom use decreases women's risk of HPV infection.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... The more consistently women's male sex partners use condoms, the less likely women are to acquire genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to a longitudinal study among newly sexually active young women. (1) Compared with their...

Young adults who lack continuous health insurance coverage have an elevated risk of chlamydia infection.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... Individuals who face barriers to obtaining routine health care may miss opportunities to be screened for chlamydia infection, which is frequently asymptomatic. It is, therefore, not surprising that poor access to health care was associated with...

Symptoms of depression in middle school teenagers linked to risky behavior.(DIGESTS)
December 1, 2006... Middle school students who report symptoms of depression are at risk for subsequently engaging in potentially harmful sexual behavior, a study based on data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)...

Title X in California.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... In "Estimates of Pregnancies Averted Through California's Family Planning Waiver Program in 2002" [2006, 38(3):126-131], Diana Greene Foster and colleagues discuss the many successes of California's Family PACT program. As the authors note,...