Baltimore’s Healthy Homes Program, Increase in Casual Sex Named Best/Worst Prevention Ideas of the Week

Baltimore’s holistic approach to unhealthy housing was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the increase in casual sex was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

BEST

Baltimore takes a holistic approach to unhealthy housing

Baltimore is the site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's first Healthy Homes program, an attempt to coordinate efforts on lead abatement, asthma and injury prevention, indoor air pollution and fire safety. "It's not unusual for a community health worker to take care of lead only to have a child die in a fire, or fall out the window," said Mary Jean Brown, chief of the Lead Poisoning Prevention branch at CDC. "The Healthy Homes approach recognizes all these things that can happen in homes. So you take your lead prevention army and equip them with tools so that they can address more than one problem at once."

WORST

Casual Sex Increasing in U.S.

People in non-romantic sexual relationships today are likely to have multiple partners, researchers have found, and that behavior could promote the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. "The United States has seen a major shift toward non-romantic sexual partnerships -- people becoming sexually involved when they are just casually dating or not dating at all," study author Anthony Paik, a sociologist at the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said in a university news release. "People can make their own choices, but we hope this information will be useful as they weigh the risks and rewards of non-romantic sexual relationships," Paik said. "We encourage people to be aware of the potential for sexual concurrency and take appropriate precautions to avoid sexually transmitted infections."

Nearly One in Four Adolescent Girls Tested Positive for STIs

A recently published study reports that nearly one in four adolescent girls were found to have had at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI), while the prevalence grew to more than one in three among girls who ackowledged being sexually experienced. "The prevalence of STIs among female adolescents is substantial, and STIs begin to be acquired soon after sexual initiation and with few sex partners," said authors of the study, which was published online in the journal "Pediatrics" on Nov. 23.

Data were analyzed from 838 females who were aged 14 to 19 and participating in the nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2004. After interview and examination, survey participants provided biological specimens that were tested for five STIs: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, herpes simplex virus type 2, and human papillomavirus (HPV) (any of 23 high-risk types or type 6 or 11).

Among the conclusions :

• Prevalence of any of the 5 STIs was 24.1% among all female adolescents and 37.7% among those deemed "sexually experienced" (gave a "yes” response to the question, “Have you ever had sex?)
• HPV was the most common STI among all female adolescents (18.3%), followed by C trachomatis infection (3.9%).
• Prevalence of any of the STIs was 25.6% among those whose age was the same or 1 year greater than their age at sexual initiation and 19.7% among those who reported only 1 lifetime sex partner.

"These findings support early and comprehensive sex education, routine HPV vaccination at the age of
11 to 12 years, and C trachomatis screening of sexually active female adolescents," the authors wrote.

This seems like a good place to remind readers that a new Facebook application has been launched to help educate, motivate and mobilize people to prevent the spread of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). “Fact Check: HPV” (http://www.hpvfactcheck.org/) allows users to take an interactive, educational quiz about HPV, find additional resources, and commit to take action, while even allowing concerned friends to anonymously share the application with peers.

CDC Report Finds Comprehensive Sex Education Programs Effective, Abstinence-Only Inconclusive

Sex education programs that advise students to delay sexual activity while also offering instruction on ways to avoid unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections effectively reduce risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and decrease spread of STIs, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-commissioned report released on Friday, the Washington Post reports. The report said there is insufficient evidence to determine whether programs that focus on abstinence until marriage reduce the chance adolescents will engage in risky sexual behavior, become pregnant or contract an STI.


The report was authored by a 19-member expert panel assembled by CDC to examine the efficacy of various sex education programs. For the report, the panel reviewed an analysis of 83 studies on sex education programs from 1980 through 2007. The findings come as Congress considers whether to approve President Obama's request to redirect federal funding from abstinence-only sex education to programs that have been validated by scientific research.

CDC's Randy Elder -- who works with the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent 15-member panel that issues public health recommendations -- said the study found "sufficient evidence that comprehensive risk reduction efforts are effective." However, "after a similar look, the task force determined that based on a number of problems with the studies presented to them there was insufficient evidence" to determine the efficacy of abstinence-only programs, Elder said.

Finance Committee Preserves Abstinence-Only Funding

Over at the Senate Finance Committee, Republicans who have expended a lot of energy claiming that the federal government can't do anything right won a vote preserving $50 million a year for "abstinence-only" education programs. 

President Obama’s first budget eliminated federal funding for such programs, instead putting money into “evidence-based” teen pregnancy prevention programs. But now, writes The New Republic's Suzy Khimm, "the Finance Committee vote could mean that Bush’s legacy will continue well past Obama’s first term, funding the so-called Title V block grants to states through 2014."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the sponsor of the amendment that won by a 12-11 vote, appeared to recognize the dichotomy inherent in his efforts.

"“My first choice would be to not have the federal government involved in any way in these types of education programs,” Hatch said in a press statement. “However, if the federal government is going to spend money on educating people about sexual decisions, the absence of an abstinence only education program has negative health consequences for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Khimm put it this way: "In other words, if the federal government is going to go there, we might as well pile on."

A 2007 survey of more than 2,000 teenagers carried out by a research company on behalf of Congress found that the half of the sample given abstinence-only education displayed exactly the same predilection for sex as those who had received conventional sex education in which contraception was discussed. Twenty-three states currently have rejected abstinence-only funds, even in the midst of a deep recession that has left states starving for funding.

Immediately after the Hatch amendment vote, the committee also voted 14-9 to approve an amendment sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that supported a more comprehensive approach to sex education passed. The amendment will provide funding to a wide range of teen wellness programs, including those dealing with contraception and HIV/AIDS. Those funds will support abstinence education programs that are deemed “medically accurate and complete.”