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2001-2007

Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007

Part Two of this report [PDF document], produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, contains data on the health status and outcomes of young Australians. It includes a selection of data on sexually transmissible infections (STIs) among this age group. These data were sourced from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

Selected findings:

  • In 2005, there were 25,571 STI notifications among young Australians aged 12–24 years (21,692 for chlamydia, 3,564 for gonococcal infection and 315 for syphilis).
  • While infection rates for gonococcal infection and syphilis were similar for males and females, rates of chlamydia infection were more than four times higher among females than among males (961 per 100,000 compared with 221 per 100,000).
  • While rates of chlamydia (particularly among females) and gonococcal infection have increased over time among young people, syphilis infection rates are declining.

Part Three of the report [PDF report], which examines some of the broader factors which influence young people's health, contains data on the sexual and reproductive health behaviours of young Australians. These data were predominantly sourced from the 2002 National Survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2007, Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007, AIHW, Canberra [viewed 13/06/07].

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2002 US report on sexual behaviour

Report: 'Sexual behavior and selected health measures: Men and women 15–44 years of age, United States, 2002'.

'The objective of the above report is intended to provide reliable national estimates of some basic statistics on certain types of sexual behaviour, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction for men and women 15–44 years of age, based on data collected in the United States in 2002 … The data are from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and are based on 12,571 in-person interviews with men and women 15–44 years of age.'

Some highlights of findings:

Teens
Percentage of teenagers aged 15–19 who had had heterosexual oral sex but not vaginal intercourse: 12% of males and 10% of females.
– This drops to 3% for both males and females at age 22–24, when most have already had vaginal intercourse.
(Trend data for males suggest that no large changes in these behaviours have occurred since 1995. There are no trend data for females).

Adults-heterosexual activity
Percentage of adult males 25–44 years of age who have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner in their lives: 97%

  • 97% have had vaginal intercourse
  • 90% have had oral sex with a female
  • 40%, anal sex with a female
Among women, the proportions who have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner were similar.

Same-sex activity (15–44 age group)
Percentage of males who have had oral or anal sex with another male in the last 12 months: 3%
Percentage of females who had a sexual experience with another female in the last 12 months: 4%

Sexual orientation
In response to a question that asked, 'Do you think of yourself as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else?'

  • 90% of men 18–44 years of age responded that they think of themselves as heterosexual
  • 2.3% of men answered homosexual
  • 1.8% bisexual
  • 3.9% 'something else'
  • 1.8% did not answer the question

Percents for women were similar.

Sexual attraction
Survey participants were asked if they were sexually attracted to males, to females, or to both.

  • Among men 18–44 years of age, 92% said they were attracted 'only to females,' and 3.9%, 'mostly' to females
  • Among women, 86% said they were attracted only to males, and 10%, 'mostly' to males

Selected health measures

  • 29% of men who have ever had male-male sexual contact were tested for HIV (outside of blood donation) in the last year, compared with 14% of men with no same-sex sexual contact.
  • 17% of men who ever had male-male sexual contact had been treated for a non-HIV sexually transmitted infection (STI), compared with 7% of those who had never had male-male sexual contact.
  • Among men 15–44 years of age who had at least one sexual partner in the last 12 months, 39% used a condom at their most recent sex. Among never married males, this figure was 65%, compared with 24% of married males. Among males who had ever had sexual contact with another male, 91% used a condom at their last sex, compared with 36% of men who never had sex with another male.

View/download PDF from National Center for Health Statistics [viewed 18/01/2007].

Source: The West Australian, 17/9/2005, p.37.

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Sexual encounters of Generation WA, 2002

According to the Secondary Students and Sexual Health Survey of 2002, the proportion of Year 12 students who have three or more sexual encounters in a year has halved:

  • 1992 almost one in four.
  • 2002 little more than one in eight.

The Democrats Youth Poll 2003 results show that the rate of chlamydia infection among 15–19-year-olds dropped from 424 per 100,000, in 2002, to 399 per 100,000, in 2003. Five years earlier, 60% of chlamydia infections were found among this age group.

The decline among high school students came at a time when total infections were continuing to climb among the 20-somethings.

Source: Australian Financial Review, 14/8/2004, p.26.

A PDF version of the Democrats Youth Poll 2003 can be downloaded from the web site of the Australian Democrats [viewed 18/01/2007].

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Australian secondary school students and sexual health, 2002

Percentage of Year 10 students who had had intercourse, 2002: 25%
...1997: 20%

Percentage of Year 12 students who were sexually active, 2002: about 50%
Percentage of students who had had unprotected sex: 22%

Percentage of male students who always used condoms: 60%
....sometimes used condoms: 31%
Percentage of female students who always used condoms: 46%
...sometimes used condoms: 44%
Percentage of Yr 10 students who used a condom at last sexual encounter: 72.4%
....Yr 12 students: 56.6%

Percentage of sexually active students who reported having had "unwanted sex at some time in their lives": 25.9%
Reason given for this sex taking place:
too drunk: 15.9%
pressure from a sexual partner: 12.6%

Percentage of students who were attracted to own sex:
male: 3.3% (further 1.3% unsure)
female: 6.7% (further 2.1% unsure)

The 3rd national Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2002 survey by The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University revealed an increase in sexual activity among Year 10 and 12 students over the last decade.

2388 young people from all States and Territories, in both the public and private school systems, were surveyed.

Source: Smith, A, Agius, P, Dyson, S, Mitchell, A & Pitts, M 2002, Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2002, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Available as pdf [18/01/2007].

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