Alcohol and drug abuse and risky sexual behaviours in young adult women.
OBJECTIVE
To assess alcohol abuse as a predictor of risky sexual behavior among adolescents and young adult women, a high-risk population for unintended pregnancies.


METHODS
Totally 3163 adolescent and young adult women, 18-29 years, were assessed on sociodemographics, alcohol and drug use and risky sexual behaviors.


METHODS
Participants answered a structured questionnaire on their leisure habits, drug and alcohol consumption, contraception and sexual behaviors.


RESULTS
Most of the young adult women perceive that sexuality is an important part of their life but not a main concern (77.6%) and that alcohol removes the barriers to have sex (62.3%). Additionally, 77.0% claimed that contraception had "a lot" (53.4%) and "quite" (23.6%) influence on the quality of their sexuality. However, up to a 38.4% of the interviewed women had had sex without using any contraception and 29.6% of them acknowledged that had taken alcohol and of these, 40.7% said that alcohol was responsible for not using contraception. Alcohol abuse predicted an increase in risky sexual behaviours (4.45 CI: 2.01-9.75, p < 0.0001). The effect of alcohol was independent of age.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that contraception-related behavioural interventions for young adult women should discuss the link between alcohol and sexual risk behavior.
Clinic Institute of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Neonatology , Hospital Clinic .
Camil
C
Castelo-Branco
Nuria
N
Parera
Nicolás
N
Mendoza
Ezequiel
E
Pérez-Campos
Iñaki
I
Lete
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Alcohol abuse; contraception; drug consumption; perceived risk; sexuality