Doctor HealthHealth Tips

A social marketing campaign urging gay and bisexual men in San Francisco to get checked for syphilis has been linked to an increase in syphilis tests.

Cartoons advocating the tests were placed in a gay newspaper, and poster-sized reproductions were posted on the streets, on bus shelters, on Webs sites and in gay bars.

The researchers, led by Katherine Ahrens of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, conducted two surveys — one at six months and one at 2.5 years after the campaign had begun. Gay and bisexual men were asked whether they were aware of the cartoons and about their sexual health.

Ahrens and colleagues found the men who were aware of the cartoons were more likely than those unaware to have been tested recently for syphilis and to have greater knowledge about it. This effect was sustained for almost three years, according to evaluations published in PLoS Medicine.

“The social marketing campaign was effective in augmenting syphilis testing and increasing syphilis awareness and knowledge in the San Francisco gay and bisexual community,” say the authors. “This effect might have contributed to decreased syphilis incidence in 2005.”

FAST-track testing and treatment for sexual diseases is to be introduced across north Manchester.
A £500,000 cash boost and new testing technology will see patients with concerns about their sexual health dealt with in less than 48 hours.
The rapid treatment will become available to patients across Bury, Heywood, Middleton, Oldham and Rochdale in the New Year, thanks to a centralised booking system for four clinics and new testing procedures.

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by HAYLEY STUBBS

One fifth (20 per cent) of women aged 16-49 had undergone a test for Chlamydia at some point in the past, of whom 27 per cent had done so in the previous year, according to a new report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Awareness of Chlamydia is increasing. The proportion of people who recognised that it is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) has increased sharply since the question was first asked in the 2000/01 survey – from 35 per cent to 79 per cent of men and from 65 per cent to 91 per cent for women.

Young women were most likely to have had a test for Chlamydia (31 per cent of 16-29 year-olds had been tested in the past compared with 20 per cent of 30-39 year olds and 11 per cent of 40-49 year olds.).

Women who had had more than one sexual partner in the past year were also more likely to have had a test (43 per cent compared with 20 per cent of those who had had just one partner).

Those who knew Chlamydia was an STI were asked five questions about the symptoms. Women were twice as likely as men to give correct responses to all questions (38 per cent compared to 18 per cent).

This report presents the results of a survey on contraception and sexual health carried out by the ONS in 2005/06 on behalf of the Information Centre for health and social care. Questions were addressed to women aged 16-49 and men aged 16-69.

Contraceptive use in women aged under 50

The majority (74 per cent) of women aged under 50 were using contraception. The most popular method was the contraceptive pill (24 per cent) followed by the male condom (21 per cent) - both methods were more popular among younger women.

Ten per cent of women under 50 had been sterilised (18 per cent of men under 70 had undergone a vasectomy). Sterilisation was more common among women with no qualifications than among those with qualifications.

Twenty-six per cent of women under 50 were not currently using a method of contraception (14 per cent were not in a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex).

Among women in a heterosexual relationship, the main reason that women did not use contraception was because their partner had been sterilised (55 per cent). The next most common reason was actual or planned pregnancy (21 per cent).

Emergency contraception

Condom failure was most common reason why hormonal emergency contraception (the morning after pill) was used (45 per cent) followed by forgetting to take the oral contraceptive pill (22 per cent).

Five per cent of women had used emergency hormonal contraception in the year before interview. Of these women, 45 per cent had obtained it directly from a chemist or pharmacy, 30 per cent from their own GP or practice nurse and 24 per cent from a family planning clinic.

Condom use

Forty-one per cent of men and 46 per cent of women said they had used a condom in the previous year. Condom use was most common among men who had had more than one sexual partner in the past year and among those with degree level qualifications.

Ninety per cent of women who used a condom said the reason was to prevent pregnancy and 43 per cent cited preventing infection, compared with 88 per cent and 47 per cent of men respectively. (People could give more than one reason).

Sexual behaviour

Sixteen per cent of men aged under 70 had had no sexual partners in the previous year, 73 per cent had had just one partner and 12 per cent had had more than one.

Twelve per cent of women aged under 50 had had no sexual partners in the previous year, 81 per cent had had just one partner and seven per cent had had more than one.

Knowledge of sexually transmitted infections Just over half of men and women reported making no changes to their behaviour as a result of what they had heard about HIV/AIDS and other STIs. However, 37 per cent said they had increased their use of condoms, nine per cent had fewer one night stands and three per cent had a test for STIs.

Television programmes were the most commonly mentioned source of information about STIs (32 per cent), followed by television advertisements (21 per cent) and newspapers, magazines or books (21 per cent).

Researchers say children now reach puberty earlier than ever

Children should be given advice on adult issues much sooner because of earlier puberty, a report says.

It says social problems such as alcohol abuse, unprotected sex and self harm may result from children receiving information on these topics too late.

The study, from Liverpool John Moores University Centre for Public Health, says the age at which puberty begins has come down for the past 150 years.

It is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The gap between when children are developing and coming into adulthood and when adult information is dispensed is the longest it’s ever been Dr Mark Bellis

The report says there have been no attempts to develop young people faster, leaving “an increasing gap between physical puberty - changes to their bodies - which tends to happen at around 12, and social puberty - when they are able to make decisions for themselves”.

This, it argues, can result in unprotected sex, substance abuse, self harm, violence and bullying.

Dr Mark Bellis, one of the report’s authors, said: “Children who are now developing at an earlier stage need a different approach.

“Information often regarded as adult on sex, relationships and dealing with issues of conflict is currently given to them when it is too late.

“The gap between when children are developing and coming into adulthood and when adult information is dispensed is the longest it’s ever been.

“So giving it over at a later stage can do more harm than good because children need to get to grips with the changes in their life sooner.”

Developmental problems

Dr Bellis said, because of this delay in receiving adult advice, children can develop problems with sexual health, substance abuse and violence because they are not well-enough equipped to deal with the difficulties they face in life.

“What we don’t know, and what we should be looking at, is do we have children developing early in poorer areas, which often have a high number of single parent families without a father.

“We cannot say that puberty is definitely happening earlier in poor areas.

“But what we are saying is that there are all three factors in these poorer areas - social problems, single-parent families and a high birth rate.”

He said better nutrition and the reduction in child health diseases were “public health reasons” for the earlier development of puberty.

Puberty may be starting sooner but there’s no difference in the age at which children become fertile Professor Gary Butler University of Reading

But he added that another factor was the absence of a father in the parental home.

“Recent studies in America show a strong relationship between a tendency for puberty to happen earlier when a father is not present.

“We can’t judge children in the 21st century the same way that we did 100 years ago, because they don’t look the same and are at a different mental stage than they were back then.”

Gary Butler, professor of paediatrics at the University of Reading, said there was a need for sex education to be given earlier, but not because of puberty issues.

“Giving information earlier needs to be done anyway but not as a result of the age children reach puberty.

“Puberty may be starting sooner but there’s no difference in the age at which children become fertile.

“We need to tackle the issue of teenage pregnancies but that’s separate from the biological issues.”