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Find the NCC on Facebook!
The National Chlamydia Coalition is now on Facebook. To follow the NCC, simply visit our page and click the "like" button. Don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues! | | |
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Dear Colleague,
Welcome to NCC News. This online newsletter was created to keep you up-to-date on all things chlamydia and related areas of interest. We hope you will find it useful and informative. Please feel free to share this with your colleagues who also may find it of use. |
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2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data Released
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The CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) recently released the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results. The YRBS tracks a variety of health risk behaviors, including sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The 2011 YRBS surveyed more than 15,000 high school students from across the country and includes national data, as well as data from 43 states and 21 large urban school districts. Key results for sexual behavior in the 2011 YRBS included the following:
- 47.4% of students reported ever having had sexual intercourse (up from 46% in 2009)
- 6.2% of students reported having had sex before age 13 (up from 5.9% in 2009)
- 15.3% of students reported having had sex with four or more sexual partners (up from 13.8% in 2009)
- 60.2% of sexually active students reported that either they or their partner had used a condom during last sex (down from 61.1% in 2009)
- 18.0% of sexually active students reported that either they or their partner had used birth control pills to prevent pregnancy before last sexual intercourse (down from 19.8% in 2009)
- 12.9% of sexually active students had not used any method to prevent pregnancy during last sexual intercourse (up from 11.9% in 2009)
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| NCC Mini Grant Case Study Now Available: Jackson County Health Department
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The second NCC mini grant case study has been published. The Jackson County Health Department (JCHD) reached out to physicians and their office teams to encourage routine chlamydia screening in private pediatric, internal medicine, and family practices located in rural Illinois. They used a medical detailing model, in which in-person visits were made to each office, as well as a peer-mentoring component. Check out the full synopsis to read more about the project and results. If you missed the first case study, SUNY/Buffalo, in which three pediatric offices pilot-tested an intervention to make chlamydia screening part of routine primary care by creating an "adolescent medical home," you can find it here.
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Chlamydia Screening By Age Misses Regional Cases
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The 2010 CDC STD screening guidelines recommend routine annual screening for chlamydia in sexually active females younger than 25 years and selective screening in older non-pregnant women with increased risk for infection. However, recent results from a retrospective analysis of routine chlamydia tests suggest that focusing screening for chlamydia on women younger than 25 years may be inappropriate in some states where older women are at significant risk for infection. The analysis of 326,601 routine chlamydia tests from clinics in 40 states, DC and Puerto Rico revealed that at least 2% of women aged 25 years or older in seven states were infected with chlamydia, a rate higher than seen in some states for women younger than 25. These results were recently presented by Dr. Mark Martens of Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Annual Meeting.
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Cost Effectiveness of Chlamydia Screening: An NCC Research Translation Committee Hot Topic
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The NCC is pleased to introduce a featured Hot Topic, an updated version of the Research Translation Committee's Research Brief. In the first installment, Tom Gift from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discusses how increasing chlamydia screening coverage of women could be a cost-effective way to improve women's health and reduce the burden of chlamydia in the population. Check back in the months to come for new hot topic coverage.
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STD Prevention Science Series 2012
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The American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) and the CDC's Division of STD Prevention (DSTDP) have partnered to bring you the latest research and best practices for STD prevention with the STD Prevention Science Series 2012. The first session of the quarterly series, "It's Not Just the Pathogen Anymore: The Genital Microbiome and Implications for Sexually Transmitted Infections," premiered on June 20th and was presented by Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington. The next installment, "Contraception and STI/HIV: Balancing the Tradeoffs in Different Contexts," will occur on August 29, 2012 at 11:30 am ET. More information on the STD Prevention Science Series 2012, as well as archived presentations, is available on the ASTDA website.
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| Norway Men Asked to Don Condoms for "Sex Hour"
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After a study found that Norwegians were the most sexually active Scandinavians, while at the same time using the least protection, the sexual health organization RFSU asked the men of Norway to don condoms for a "sex hour" last Thursday to raise public awareness about safe-sex. Campaigners urged men to switch off the televised Euro 2012 soccer quarter-final match between the Czech Republic and Portugal and indulge in an hour of condom-protected sex with a willing partner at 1900 GMT. Norway logs 20,000 cases of chlamydia each year, and the study found that 62 percent of Norwegians ages 20-35 did not use a condom during their last casual sex encounter. "Our motto is sex is good, sex improves your health," RFSU sexologist Sidsel Kloeew said. "This is meant to be this year's most pleasant hour in Norway."
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