Factors Associated with Non-Condom Use among Homosexuals

"Approximately four million teens get a sexually transmitted disease every year" (Scripps 1). Today’s numbers of sexually active teens differ greatly from that of just a few years ago. Which in return, projects that not only the risk of being infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) has risen, but the actual numbers of those infected rise each year as well. These changes have not gone unnoticed. In fact have produced adaptations as to how society educates its young adults about sex, using special programs, various advertising, and regulating sexual education courses in public schools. One major adaptation is the advancement and availability of

An individual’s sexual orientation is also a factor because although heterosexual men and women are overwhelmingly affected and hence represented in health reports, homosexual male youth (referred by the acronym of men who have sex with men, MSM, in some reports) have a higher risk of infection; large heterosexual figures may be due to a larger heterosexual population overall. The heightened risk associated with MSM populations can be attributed to unprotected anal intercourse, an increased number of sexual partners, as well as co-infection

In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States

One of the major topics correlated with adolescents is the increase in sexual activity among adolescents (Miller & More, 1990). The dramatic increase in sexual intercourse among members of the United States, mostly homosexual men, lead to one of the worst epidemics in history, the AIDS

Master of Professional Health Debra Hauser states that sexual education is an essential part of the development and growth of teenagers. In her article “Youth Health and Rights in Sex Education”, MPH Hauser provides a report of teenage pregnancies and STDs incidences, which points out that each year in the United States, about 750,000 teens become pregnant, with up to 82 percent of those pregnancies being unintended. Young people ages 15-24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S (Hauser). According to Hauser, “sex education teaches young people the skills they need to protect themselves”, such as the ability to recognize patterns of a toxic relationships, learning to value and have control over their bodies, understanding

Numerous sexual partners enables the chances of contracting an STI, such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, or Syphilis, to increase; that being said, statistics indicate that one in every five teens has had four or more sexual partners. Teens of the ages 15 through 19 are among the highest rates of the population infected with the previously mentioned sexually transmitted diseases. Teens engaging in sexual activity are often exposed to diseases without full understanding of the ease that these infections can be transmitted; students need to be exposed to the severe consequences in order to promote more cautious future decisions, like the amount of sexual encounters. Many young males and females never acquire information on the numerous sexually transmitted infections that they could catch and distribute nor how to prevent or treat such diseases. The statistics of high school students that document receiving counseling on STDs and STD testing at a routine checkup with their doctor meets low expectations, recording at 42.8 percent for females and only 26.4 percent for males. The high rates of infected teens could be directly related to the lack of knowledge they receive on the possible diseases that can be distributed through sex. Without proper knowledge on sexually transmitted diseases, the

Some 110 million Americans have an STD at any given time. With 50 percent of new STD cases involving persons aged 15-24(CDC), it's clear to see that there is a problem with prevention of these Infections. With having an STD, it puts people at more risk to get the HIV virus, which is not curable at this time (STD Facts). Showing that people who haven't contracted an STD are less likely to preform risky sex behavior.

Therefore, Australian adolescents are at serious risk as there are approximately 25% of young people reported sexually active by 15 years-old, with numbers increasing to 50% by Year 12; only 40% practice safe sex and use a condom (ACYS, 2014).Therefore, they are at greater risk of contracting STIs as a consequence of inexperience and lack of knowledge concerning risks with unprotected sex and access to contraception, social pressure, frequency of partner change, substance use and unwillingness to talk with parents or their general practitioner (DoHA, 2005). Hence, the success of lowering the prevalence of STIs among adolescents relies heavily on the knowledge about reproductive matters and access to and use of effective

Gabster, Mohammed, Arteaga, Castillero, Majica, Dyamondy, Varela, and Pascale (2016), found that sixty six out of eighty high school students who had a Sexually Transmitted Disease reported inconsistent condom usage during sex. Form the current research found in learning more about information within Meeker’s (2007) book I have found her information regarding Sexually Transmitted Diseases to still be relevant to current research regarding teenagers and the STD epidemic.

Teen sexual health standpoints must be lifted to lodge the up-to-date compressions, myths, and the realities of the pressures and dangerous outcomes that the new generation is facing or if misinformed will soon face, in the relations of beginning to be sexually active and living a healthy and cautious sexual life in order to protect the teens from continuing to see high rates of STD reduction and transmission.

Moreover, the authors used an appropriate method to recruit participants. The recruitment was confidential as it screened all the potential participants in a private room. Participants were aware they were part of a study of the effectiveness of FoF to promote correct and consistent use of condoms, and they completed a consent form. Youths aged between 15 to 17 years were excluded in this study as having sex under 18 years is not encouraged.

There were two primary outcome categories the data collection evaluated: 1) Sexual Risk Behavior Outcomes 2) HIV/STI Testing Outcomes. Sexual risk behavior outcomes were computed by adding responses to summarize the number of episodes of unprotected insertive anal intercourse (UIAI) and unprotected receptive anal intercourse (URAI) with main partners, as well as UAIA and URAI with casual partners.

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, “65 percent of teens have had sex by the time they were seniors in high school”. Under-aged sex is a prevalent activity in today’s society; henceforth, starting this act from a younger age results in an increase in sexual partners over one’s lifespan, which, because of the nature of the activity, gives a greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, it is important to understand: adolescent STD rates, the factors that may contribute to them and the possible preventable variables that could aid in alleviating the rate of sexually transmitted diseases transmitted amongst adolescents. To further understand the effects of religiosity and culture, this review of literature will discover the negative and positive correlations, and the associations certain variables obtained to influence the adolescent STD rates. The possible major factors that contribute to high adolescent STD rates are: adolescent relationships, sexual violence, lack of sexual knowledge, and lack of parental guidance. However, religiosity and culture plays both a positive and a negative preventive strategy in slowing down adolescent STD rates. To further reduce rates of adolescent sexually transmitted diseases, more research is needed to measure the effectiveness of the different types of religions and cultures.

Knowledge about condoms and contraceptives provide the teenagers a better understanding which may lessen the incidence of early pregnancies and infections brought about by sexual intercourse. The author also recommends the government to sponsor condom availability programs for high school students to provide more access to condoms and contraceptives. Prohibiting the young people of today from using condoms and contraceptives may only increase the problems of illnesses and unwanted pregnancies so it may be more beneficial to do

The most recent evidence concludes young men who have sex with men (YMSM) “aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, para. 3). Thus, suggests intervention for the YMSM population is vital to reversing this negative trend. Early recognition of this trend caught the attention of Dr. Kegeles and Dr. Hays from the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, at the University of California, San Francisco. Together they developed an “HIV prevention methodology that reformed the social environment of people at risk for HIV/AIDS, as well as focused on individual and interpersonal-level issues