Patient provider communication and reproductive health

Abstract

The prevalence among youth aged 15-19 ever having sexual intercourse has decreased from 1991-2007. However, the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS) of AYA in the United States reports 48% of this population has had sexual intercourse [1]. Along with these rates of sexual activity, 28% of adolescents who have requested pregnancy tests at local health departments had already used a home pregnancy test [2]. Considering these high rates of sexual activity in teens in conjunction with the public health risk of adolescent pregnancies [3] and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) [4], the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) provide professional guidelines stressing the responsibility of health professionals to offer comprehensive reproductive health services such as sex education, counseling, and contraceptive awareness [5, 6]. These guidelines are consistent with research that sex education results in lower rates of sexual activity, increased contraceptive use, and fewer adolescent pregnancies [7, 8]. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.