This study investigated whether there were any changes in knowledge and normative beliefs regarding abstinence and condoms and personal risk perception of acquiring HIV among Zambian secondary-school students who were exposed to a peer sexual health intervention. Schools were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. A baseline assessment that measured knowledge, normative beliefs a...

The cross-sectional study investigated South African rural high school learners' choice of sexual abstinence in order to be able to develop tailored health education messages. All Grade 9 learners from one class at each of 10 randomly selected rural high schools participated. The Integrated Model for Motivational and Behavioural Change was used to elicit attitudes, social influences, self-effic...

CONTEXT Adolescent pregnancy prevention is difficult because adolescent sex is intermittent. Understanding why sexually experienced adolescents have sex after a period of abstinence will help clinicians to tailor counseling. METHODS For up to 4.5 years between 1999 and 2006, a sample of 354 adolescent women recruited at urban primary care clinics were interviewed and tested for STDs every thr...

Teenage sexual activity is a major problem confronting the nation and has led to a rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emotional and psychological injuries, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Abstinence education programs for youth have been proven to be effective in reducing early sexual activity. Abstinence programs also can provide the foundation for personal responsibili...

This paper examines the effects of AIDS education at school and at home on the sexual behavior of American youth. Multinomial logit equations of the probabilities of abstinence, sexual intercourse with a condom, and intercourse without a condom are estimated using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Supplement of the 1992 National Health Interview Survey. We find no significant effects of AIDS ed...

OBJECTIVES To examine effectiveness of abstinence-until-marriage curriculum on knowledge, beliefs, efficacy, intentions, and behavior. METHODS Nonrandomized control trial involving 2069 middle school students with a 5-month follow-up. RESULTS Intervention students reported increases in knowledge and abstinence beliefs, but decreases in intentions to have sex and to use condoms. Intervention...

www.thelancet.com/lancetgh Vol 5 January 2017 e31 Abstinence in HIV prevention: science and sophistry Authors’ reply In response to our Comment, Chika Uzoigwe and Luis Sanchez Franco accuse us of sophistry in reporting the best available evidence, which suggests that the promotion of abstinence and fidelity does not prevent HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or unwanted pregnancies—ev...

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Recent studies have shown regional and population differences in semen characteristics. The objective was to establish reference values for semen analysis and to verify the effect that age, length of sexual abstinence, seasonality, smoking habits and coffee consumption have on fertile individuals' semen characteristics. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective study in the Urology...

Postpartum sexual abstinence for females has been identified as one of the socio-cultural factors with the potential for creating conditions for the sexual spread of HIV in areas where it is practised. In general, women are expected to abstain from sex after childbirth in order to ensure the survival of the mother and child. Men are not similarly expected to abstain and that has been used to ra...