Health News
2005-10-12
Survey: Few
discuss HIV and STDs
A new national
survey by Zogby and MSNBC.com shows that although most
Americans say they are concerned about possibly contracting
HI
A new national
survey by Zogby and MSNBC.com shows that although most
Americans say they are concerned about possibly contracting
HIV or a sexually transmitted disease from their sex
partners, few routinely talk with their partners about
the diseases or their sexual histories, MSNBC.com
reports. The survey of 56,000 Americans shows that just 39%
of people always ask a new sex partner if that person
is HIV-positive or has had another STD. One third say
they never ask about their partners about HIV or STDs;
among survey participants with less than a high school
education, half said they never ask about HIV or STDs.
The survey showed
that women were more likely to initiate discussions
about HIV and STDs with their sex partners than men (48% and
33% respectively) and that African-Americans were more
likely than Latinos or whites to talk about the
diseases. About 42% of all the survey respondents said
they were unaware of their current partner’s HIV
status.
Julius Schachter,
editor of the journal Sexually Transmitted
Diseases, told MSNBC.com that one of the reasons for the
low number of people knowing their partners’ HIV
status is that many still view HIV as a disease
affecting only white gay men and injection-drug users.
Men also commonly believe that it is much more
difficult for them to contract an STD from a woman than it
is for women to be infected by men, Schachter added.
Alcohol and drug
use significantly boosted rates of unprotected sex among
survey participants and were the biggest risk factors for
unsafe sex. About two thirds of the survey respondents
said they had engaged in unprotected sex while under
the influence of alcohol.
More than 60% of
the survey respondents said they had sex within the day
or previous week. About two thirds of the survey
participants with a steady partner report having sex
at least once per week; one quarter reported having
sex more than three times per week. Nearly 25% of the
male survey participants reported having had more than 25
sex partners; only 13% of women reported having had
more than 25 partners. (Advocate.com)
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