Publicity failing to improve sexual health behaviour

The survey by the Office for National Statistics found that 59% of single men and 52% of women had not reduced their number of one-night stands or increased their use of condoms despite fears about STIs.

Only 6% of men and 7% of women said they had been affected enough by publicity to have fewer one-night stands.

Nearly a third of women aged 16 to 49 have been tested for chlamydia, with 38% of those being tested in the past year.

In the past twelve months, 12% of men under 70 had more than one sexual partner compared with 10% of women under 50. 14% of men and 10% of women had no sexual partners in this period.

The sexual health survey found that 7% of women had used the morning-after pill at least once in the year before being interviewed, a similar figure to that recorded in previous years.

Ideas about the uses of emergency contraception were generally clear, with only 4% of women wrongly believing that the morning-after pill was effective until the next period and less than 1% incorrectly thinking it protected against STIs.

Women aged 16 to 19 were the least likely to be using contraception (57%), followed by those aged 45 to 49 (72%), although the report’s authors cautioned that the figures for teenagers were based on only 60 respondents.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment.