Changes in sexual behaviours: from secular trends to public health policies

Abstract

Public health interventions that are synergistic with trends in social norms are likely to be more effective than those that run counter to them. In France, sexual health and HIV prevention policies aimed at harm limitation appear to have chimed with secular trends. The evidence of greater diversification of sexual practices offers potential to increase the range of safer sex messages used in public health interventions.

Change and stasis in sexual health and relationships: comparisons between the First and Second Australian Studies of Health and Relationships

“…Indeed, the proportion of men reporting first vaginal intercourse before age 16 years fell from 22% to 19%, 4 and the median age at first vaginal intercourse among men rose from 17.6 years to 17.9 years. 5 These data correspond to findings in other countries 16,18 and suggest that sexual double standards around the timing of early sexual experiences may be weakening. 20 There were significant reductions between ASHR1 and ASHR2 in the proportions of respondents who believed that oral sex counted as 'having sex' from 72% to 66% among men and women.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Many of the broad changes (and stability) observed in ASHR1-ASHR2 comparisons were also found in the comparisons between Natsal-2 and Natsal-3 in Britain 16,17 and analyses of repeated surveys in France. 18 In addition, the patterns of demographic correlates of the various outcomes tended to be similar in ASHR1 and ASHR2. For many measures of sexual ill-health, people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) fared less well-a pattern observed for many other health outcomes.…”

“…3 These decreases correspond to changes observed among men and women in Natsal between 2001 and 2011, but stand in contrast to stability in frequency of vaginal intercourse in France between 1992 and 2006. 16,18 Having noted that, there was no significant change in the degree of correspondence between desired and actual frequency of sex; the proportion of respondents who reported concordance between their actual and desired frequency of sex fell from 15% to 14% among men and from 27% to 25% among women. The majority of men (85%) and women (69%) wanted to have sex more often than they actually did.…”

Assessment of Cervical Cytological Data in Albanian Females

“…The varying period and cohort patterns in ICC trends across countries can be largely attributed to two independent factors: i) the existence, duration, and quality of screening programmes over calendar time; and ii) changes in ICC risk factors, notably sexual behaviour and, hence, the probability of HPV exposure, affecting consecutive generations of women (Bajos et al, 2010;Hank et al, 2013). A long-term increase in prevalence of HPV is presumably the main reason for the rapid increase in cervical cancer death rate in young women from the 1960s to the 1980s, but changes in several other factors could also be relevant.…”

Unresolved questions concerning human papillomavirus infection and transmission: a modelling perspective

“…72 However, there appears to be considerable cultural and contextual (e.g. sex work) variation in trends in this behaviour, [73][74][75] making an overall trend difficult to determine. Similarly, estimating the role of oral sex in HPV transmission and the development of oropharyngeal cancers is complicated because, as with anal intercourse, partner change seems to be associated with an increased risk of HPV-related disease as much or more than reported oral sex.…”