title: The multiple dimensions of sexual behavior as risk factor for sexually transmitted disease: the sexually experienced are not necessarily sexually active.
abstract: Sexual behavior is a crucial risk factor for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), but no national data exist to define a true population at risk. Instead, limited information describes sexual behavior in specific population groups (adolescents, women in their twenties) only in terms of a single dimension: sexual experience. To address the multiple dimensions of sexual behavior, we analyzed data collected from a nationally representative sample of reproductive age women in the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). We found 86% of women aged 15-44 to be sexually experienced. Teenagers are the least experienced (45% and 56% of whites and others, respectively) and the least sexually active of all reproductive women. While sexual experience increases with age, sexual activity shows a curvilinear age pattern: it increases up to age 35 and decreases slightly from age 35 to 44. Teenagers report the least consistent sexual activity (less than 25%) and the highest level of abstention (38% and 31% for whites and others, respectively) following sexual experience. These findings indicate sexual experience as a measure of sexual behavior should be further refined to provide a more accurate estimate of the population at risk for STD.
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control, Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Atlanta, Georgia 30333.
authors.forename: S O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Aral
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cates
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000635:transmission*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology