Category Archives: Teen Health

Research, STDs, Teen Health

CDC: Youth engage in sexual risk behaviors that can result in unintended health outcomes

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From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

School health programs can help young people adopt lifelong attitudes and behaviors that support their health and well-being—including behaviors that can reduce their risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Among U.S. high school students surveyed in 2017:

  • 40% had ever had sexual intercourse.
  • 10% had four or more sexual partners.
  • 7% had been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to.
  • 30% had had sexual intercourse during the previous 3 months, and, of these 46% did not use a condom the last time they had sex.
  • 14% did not use any method to prevent pregnancy.
  • 19% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before last sexual intercourse.
  • Less than 10% of all students have ever been tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

According to the CDC, prevention programs in schools should provide health information that is basic, accurate, and directly contributes to health-promoting decisions and behaviors.

Find out more on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Website.

Black Americans and HIV, HIV, Teen Health

What can Black youth teach us about HIV?

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From hivplusmag.com

New research shows that young people living with HIV suffer fewer virus-related symptoms when they’re able to map out their own long-term health goals. Data also found that when this type of planning, referred to as end-of-life care, isn’t mapped out by the youth or a family member, young people living with HIV are more likely to suffer negative health outcomes.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, evaluated 105 mostly black adolescents (93 percent African-Americans) aged 14 to 21 and their families who received care from six U.S. hospital-based HIV clinics between July 2011 and June 2014. One-third of the family participants were also poz themselves.

Lead investigator Maureen E. Lyon, a clinical health psychologist at Children’s National Health System at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., tested an intervention known as Family Centered pediatric Advance Care Planning (FACE pACP). In one-hour sessions, one group of youths and their families went through advance care planning, while another group received traditional assessments.

Read the full article.

HIV Prevention, Teen Health

Most doctors would give HIV prevention drugs to teens

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From Reuters Health…

Last month U.S. regulators said a pill that helps prevent infection with HIV is safe for use by adolescents, and a study suggests most physicians would be willing to prescribe this medicine to teens.

So-called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with Truvada, a daily pill combining the medicines tenofovir and emtricitabine, can lower the risk of getting HIV from sex by up to 90 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Truvada has long been used to treat HIV and as a prevention strategy for adults.

The current study was conducted between October 2016 and January 2017, before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved PrEP for teens who weigh at least 35 kg (77 pounds).

Researchers surveyed 162 doctors who worked with adolescents and young adults. While 93 percent of the clinicians had heard of PrEP, only 35 percent had prescribed it.

About 65 percent of the survey participants said they would be willing to prescribe PrEP to adolescents, and another 19 percent were willing to refer teens to another clinician for the prescription.

Among those who were unwilling to prescribe it themselves, about two-thirds said they would prescribe it for teens if it had FDA approval for these patients.

“Everyone, including adolescents, should know whether they could benefit from PrEP,” said lead study author Dr. Geoffrey Hart-Cooper, a pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Health and a HIV prevention specialist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Read the full article.