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International Teen Sex Survey

England has the highest percentage of sexually experienced
15-year-olds in Europe and Canada, a 24-nation survey shows.

Emmanuelle Godeau, MD, PhD, of the University of Toulouse, France, and
colleagues asked some 34,000 15-year-olds about their sexual activities as part
of a youth health survey. They collected the data in 2002 from students in 23
European countries and Canada.

Generally speaking, 15-year-olds from Western Europe were more likely to
report sexual intercourse than those in Eastern Europe. When they did, they
also were more likely to report use of effective birth control -- either oral
contraceptives or condoms.

Other findings:


  • Rates of sexual experience ranged from 38% in England to 14% in
    Croatia.

  • Overall, 82% of sexually experienced teens used condoms and/or b irth control pills.

  • Condom use ranged from 53% of sexually active teens in Sweden to 89% in
    Greece.

  • Birth control pill use ranged from 3% in Croatia to 48% in the Netherlands
    and in Flemish-speaking Belgium.

  • Surprisingly, a large proportion of girls and boys -- 16% overall -- used
    both condoms and birth control pills when they last had sexual
    intercourse.

  • In the seven nations that asked about emergency contraception, 10% of teens
    who did not use condoms or birth control pills used the morning-after pill
    after their most recent sexual episode.

  • Withdrawal -- a difficult method of birth control pill with a 25% failure
    rate among teens -- was the birth control method used by a fifth of students
    not using other forms of birth control.


In an editorial accompanying the study, John Santelli, MD, MPH, of New
York's Columbia University notes that surveys of U.S. teens show they are less
likely than Western European teens to use effective methods of birth
control.

Santelli and colleagues suggest that normalization of teen sexual behavior
-- coupled with an emphasis on personal responsibility -- is linked to more use
of birth control and lower pregnancy rates in teens.

The Godeau study and the Santelli editorial appear in the January issue of
Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved

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