Sex Ed Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy (HealthDay)

MONDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Comprehensive sex education mayhelp reduce teen pregnancies without increasing levels of sexualintercourse or sexually transmitted diseases.

So find U.S. researchers who reviewed data from a 2002 national surveyof more than 1,700 heterosexual teens, ages 15 to 19.

There is ongoing debate about whether abstinence-only education orcomprehensive sex education (including instruction in birth control) isbest for students.

Study lead author Pamela Kohler, a program manager at the University ofWashington in Seattle, and colleagues found that about 25 percent of teensreceived abstinence-only education and about two-thirds receivedcomprehensive sex education. About 9 percent -- particularly teens frompoor families and those in rural areas -- received no sex education atall.

The researchers found that teens who received comprehensive sexeducation were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or to get someonepregnant than those who received no sex education.

Other results -- not statistically significant, however -- suggestedthat comprehensive sex education, but not abstinence-based sex education,slightly reduced the likelihood of teens having vaginal intercourse.Neither approach seemed to reduce the likelihood of reported cases ofsexually transmitted diseases.

The findings, published in the April issue of the Journal ofAdolescent Health, support comprehensive sex education, Kohlerconcluded.

"There was no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only educationdecreased the likelihood of ever having sex or getting pregnant," she saidin a prepared statement.

This study offers "further compelling evidence" about the value ofcomprehensive sex education and the "ineffectiveness" of theabstinence-only approach, said Don Operario, a sex education expert andprofessor at Oxford University in England.

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