Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health articles from September 2008

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health archives from September 2008

There oughta be a law (not!).(FYI)(abortion)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... "Many governments around the world using criminal penalties to try to prevent abortions are out of step with their publics," according to the director of a project that conducted opinion surveys in 18 countries during the first half of 2008....

Comparing hormonals.(FYI)(Clinical report)
September 1, 2008... A review of randomized controlled trials indicates that the contraceptive patch and the vaginal ring are similar in effectiveness to combined oral contraceptives. (1) The 11 trials (three comparing the patch and the pill, and eight comparing...

Breast-feeding support not what it should be.(FYI)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... U.S. women breast-feed at levels far below national targets, and one reason may be that they get inadequate support for breastfeeding in hospitals and birth centers. (1) A nationwide survey of such facilities yielded data that were grouped into...

Do virginity pledges work?(FYI)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Virginity pledges appear to reduce the risk of sexual initiation even when differences in young people's propensity to pledge are taken into account. (1) When interviewed in 2001, 24% of a national sample of sexually inexperienced...

Call to action on HIV among Latinos.(FYI)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A network of Latino community and health leaders has issued a set of recommendations for federal actions to address HIV and AIDS among Latinos. (1) Noting the sharp disparities between Latinos and whites in such measures as HIV diagnoses, AIDS...

Trend headed the wrong way.(FYI)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Nearly half of all HIV diagnoses in 33 surveillance states between 2001 and 2006 were made in men who have sex with men, and this group is the only one that showed an increase in the number of diagnoses over that period. (1) HIV diagnoses...

Dealing with substance use during pregnancy.(FYI)(Report)
September 1, 2008... Treatment for substance abuse as part of prenatal care can improve maternal and infant outcomes, according to findings from a study of nearly 50,000 California women who gave birth in 1999-2003. (1) The women attended a health maintenance...

Need to know the number of people living with AIDS in Denmark?(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Need to know the number of people living with AIDS in Denmark? Or the birthrate in Monaco? Users of the Web site can now create custom data sheets showing the latest data on a wide range of health, demographic and economic measures for...

The Fifth Annual Health Grades Women's Health Outcomes in American Hospitals Study reports on the quality of care that women and their newborns received at hospitals in 17 states for the period 2004--2006.(Report)
September 1, 2008... The Fifth Annual Health Grades Women's Health Outcomes in American Hospitals Study reports on the quality of care that women and their newborns received at hospitals in 17 states for the period 2004--2006. In addition to showing rates of...

With declines in infant mortality stalled and the health of women of childbearing age beginning to decline, a shift in focus from prenatal care to preconception care may benefit the health of women and their newborns.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... With declines in infant mortality stalled and the health of women of childbearing age beginning to decline, a shift in focus from prenatal care to preconception care may benefit the health of women and their newborns. Healthy Women, Healthy...

Pleasure, prophylaxis and procreation: a qualitative analysis of intermittent contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy.(Report)
September 1, 2008... The prevalence, health consequences and political salience of unintended pregnancy have made it a source of significant policy concern for several decades. Nearly half (48%) of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended, giving the United States one...

Prior pill experiences and current continuation among pill restarters.(Report)
September 1, 2008... Contraceptive discontinuation is a significant cause of unplanned pregnancy. Oral contraceptives are central to any discussion of contraceptive discontinuation, since more women use the pill than any other reversible method, (1) and because...

Recent evaluations of the peer-led approach in adolescent sexual health education: a systematic review.(Report)
September 1, 2008... The sexual health o f adolescents is a growing global public health issue. In developing countries, approximately 60% of new HIV infections occur among 15-24-year-olds, (1) and a similar proportion of pregnancies and births to adolescents are...

Timing of sexual debut and initiation of postsecondary education by early adulthood.(Report)
September 1, 2008... Current U.S. reproductive health policies promote abstinence from sexual activity during the adolescent years, asserting that adolescent sexual activity causes physical and psychological harm. (1) Research on adolescent sexual activity has...

Implementing an advance emergency contraception policy: what happens in the real world?(Report)
September 1, 2008... Emergency contraception is a safe, highly effective method of preventing unintended pregnancy. In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that the Yuzpe regimen of emergency contraception (two doses of combined estrogen and progestin...

Associations between low-income women's relationship characteristics and their contraceptive use.(Report)
September 1, 2008... The proportion of pregnancies in the United States that are unintended is 49%, and among low-income women, this proportion is even higher-62% among those with incomes below the federal poverty level. (1) Couples' contraceptive use and method...

Prevalence of sexual risk behaviors among U.S. high school students declined between 1991 and 2007.(DIGESTS)
September 1, 2008... In 2007, 48% of U.S. high school students had ever had sexual intercourse, according to findings from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). (1) The proportion of students who had ever had sex was higher among blacks than among...

Past academic, drug-related and sexual behaviors predict risky sex after high school.(DIGESTS)
September 1, 2008... Behavioral patterns formed in high school may foreshadow sexual risk-taking in the months after young people leave high school, according to a study of 19-year-olds in the Pacific Northwest. (1) In contrast with literature that associates...

Internet use assists men's meeting of male sex partners, but does not promote unprotected sex.(Digests)
September 1, 2008... In a study of young men who have sex with men, online sex-seeking behavior was associated with having a greater number of partners, but not consistently with unprotected anal sex. (1) Men who reported using the Internet--either exclusively or...

STDs among young adults linked to childhood and teenage risk factors.(Digests)
September 1, 2008... A young adult's risk factors for STDs include not only risky sexual behaviors, such as inconsistent condom use, but also a variety of environmental and psychosocial factors from childhood and adolescence. (1) Findings from a nationally...

Computer-assisted surveys may expand understanding of STD risks and incidence.(Digests)(sexually transmitted diseases)
September 1, 2008... Telephone surveys administered through computer-assisted self-interviewing could yield a substantially better picture of Americans' STD-related experiences, and of disease incidence, than telephone surveys conducted by human interviewers. In a...

Vertical transmission rate is low when pregnant women get HIV therapy.(Digests)(human immunodeficiency virus)(Clinical report)
September 1, 2008... In a national surveillance study of singleton births to HIV-infected women in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission was 1.2% overall, and 0.8% for women who had received antiretroviral therapy for at least...

Hepatitis B immunization coverage low among men who have sex with men.(Digests)(Clinical report)
September 1, 2008... Immunization against hepatitis B virus (HBV) appears to be uncommon among young men who have sex with men, according to an analysis of findings from a survey conducted in six urban centers in 1998-2000. (1) Fewer than one in five respondents...