Todo es muy bonito hasta que... Bridging the educational gaps for encouraging intimacy in sexual health interventions

Resumen

In the United States, youth suffer from record-high rates of STIs and HIV. Sexual healthinterventions often focus on abstinence-only behavior, or are comprehensive, butrarely educate about the benefits of sex, or how to make safe sex enjoyable. Evidenceshows that sex has many positive impacts on health throughout the lifespan, and should be promoted as such. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine thelimited literature on sexual health interventions that encourage sex on various sexualbehavior outcomes among youth in the United States. Included studies containedquantitative data on outcome measures and 10% or more of Hispanics or Latinos in thesample. Studies were excluded if the interventions were tailored to unique populationssuch as sex workers or drug addicts, among others. A protocol was developedto systematically extract data from the studies to describe study, sample, andintervention characteristics. The effects of the individual interventions were obtainedand metaregression were run. Among interventions that encouraged sex, the ratesof unprotected sex increased overall (d+=-0.4222, 95% CI=-0.6425, -0.2018). However,when moderated by race, unprotected sex decreased among Latinos and Blacks, andincreased with higher percentages of Whites in the sample. As Latinos and Blacksincreased in the sample, the number of partners also increased, and as the numberof Whites increased, the number of partners decreased. When the interventions weregeared towards adolescents generally, and not tailored to minorities, the oppositetrend was found among Hispanics, where unprotected sex significantly worsened(ß=-0.0133, 95% CI=-0.0189, -0.0076). In conclusion, these interventions may encourageyouth to engage in sex more frequently or with more partners, but may not sufficientlyemphasize protection. Future programs should emphasize the benefits of sex, butincorporate techniques on making safe sex fun and enjoyable, and perhaps be tailoredto specific demographics for optimal results.