U.S. teens need better sex ed, according to new Centers for Disease Control survey data

The Obama administration has been working to reform sex education and reproductive health programs in the U.S., including proposals to cut the funding for or to eliminate many abstinence-only programs favored by the previous administration, and new data released yesterday week by the  Centers for Disease Control (CDC) brings new urgency to the cause.

In this week's online Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC released its surveillance survey Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10--24 Years, developed by the CDC's Workgroup on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and conducted from 2002-2007.

Among the many findings in the report, the researchers indicate that parents are not speaking with their children about sex and that great disparities in sex education exist between racial, ethnic, and geographic region groups, correlating to higher incidence of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection.

The report from the Workgroup on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Healthy concludes:

The data presented in this report indicate that the sexual and reproductive health of America's young persons remains an important public health concern: a substantial number of youths are affected, disparities exist, and earlier progress appears to be slowing and perhaps reversing. These patterns exist for a range of health outcomes (i.e., sexual risk behavior, pregnancy and births, STDs, HIV/AIDS, and sexual violence), highlighting the magnitude of the threat to young persons' sexual and reproductive health.

These findings underscore the importance of sustaining efforts to promote adolescent reproductive health. Effective screening, treatment, and referral services exist, and a growing number of evidence-based sexuality education, parent-child communication, and youth development programs are available to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health. A key challenge is to ensure that these services are delivered so all youths can benefit. Continued support also is needed to monitor trends in sexual risk behavior and to promote research on new ways to help young persons achieve reproductive health.

More info, via the report's data summary, for those of you interested in the stats:

This report presents data for 2002--2007 concerning the sexual and reproductive health of persons aged 10--24 years in the United States. Data were compiled from the National Vital Statistics System and multiple surveys and surveillance systems that monitor sexual and reproductive health outcomes into a single reference report that makes this information more easily accessible to policy makers, researchers, and program providers who are working to improve the reproductive health of young persons in the United States. The report addresses three primary topics: 1) current levels of risk behavior and health outcomes; 2) disparities by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and geographic residence; and 3) trends over time.

The data presented in this report indicate that many young persons in the United States engage in sexual risk behavior and experience negative reproductive health outcomes. In 2004, approximately 745,000 pregnancies occurred among U.S. females aged <20 years. In 2006, approximately 22,000 adolescents and young adults aged 10--24 years in 33 states were living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and approximately 1 million adolescents and young adults aged 10--24 years were reported to have chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis. One-quarter of females aged 15--19 years and 45% of those aged 20--24 years had evidence of infection with human papillomavirus during 2003--2004, and approximately 105,000 females aged 10--24 years visited a hospital emergency department (ED) for a nonfatal sexual assault injury during 2004--2006. Although risks tend to increase with age, persons in the youngest age group (youths aged 10--14 years) also are affected. For example, among persons aged 10--14 years, 16,000 females became pregnant in 2004, nearly 18,000 males and females were reported to have sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in 2006, and 27,500 females visited a hospital ED because of a nonfatal sexual assault injury during 2004--2006.

Noticeable disparities exist in the sexual and reproductive health of young persons in the United States. For example, pregnancy rates for female Hispanic and non-Hispanic black adolescents aged 15--19 years are much higher (132.8 and 128.0 per 1,000 population) than their non-Hispanic white peers (45.2 per 1,000 population). Non-Hispanic black young persons are more likely to be affected by AIDS: for example, black female adolescents aged 15--19 years were more likely to be living with AIDS (49.6 per 100,000 population) than Hispanic (12.2 per 100,000 population), American Indian/Alaska Native (2.6 per 100,000 population), non-Hispanic white (2.5 per 100,000 population) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.3 per 100,000 population) adolescents. In 2006, among young persons aged 10--24 years, rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were highest among non-Hispanic blacks for all age groups. The southern states tend to have the highest rates of negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes, including early pregnancy and STDs.

Although the majority of negative outcomes have been declining for the past decade, the most recent data suggest that progress might be slowing, and certain negative sexual health outcomes are increasing. For example, birth rates among adolescents aged 15--19 years decreased annually during 1991--2005 but increased during 2005--2007, from 40.5 live births per 1,000 females in 2005 to 42.5 in 2007 (preliminary data). The annual rate of AIDS diagnoses reported among males aged 15--19 years has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, from 1.3 cases per 100,000 population in 1997 to 2.5 cases in 2006. Similarly, after decreasing for >20 years, gonorrhea infection rates among adolescents and young adults have leveled off or had modest fluctuations (e.g., rates among males aged 15--19 years ranged from 285.7 cases per 100,000 population in 2002 to 250.2 cases per 100,000 population in 2004 and then increased to 275.4 cases per 100,000 population in 2006), and rates for syphilis have been increasing (e.g., rates among females aged 15--19 years increased from 1.5 cases per 100,000 population in 2004 to 2.2 cases per 100,000 population in 2006) after a significant decrease during 1997--2005.

Sarah Estrella, the new Sex Education Examiner on the Education channel, also writes as the Sex & Relationships Examiner on the Relationships channel here at Examiner.com. If you enjoyed this article, don't miss her previous reporting on Sex Education, Condoms, and Safe Sex. Please subscribe to this column to have the latest Sex Education headlines delivered to your email.