While doing a little investigation, I came across pregnancy and birth rate statistics among different racial/ethnic categories in recent years.  I was surprised to see that the pregnancy and birth rate among Hispanic teens were substantially greater than that of non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white teens (2005: 81.5, 60.9, 26.0 per 1000 women respectively*). 

With a little further investigation, I found literature reporting that the decline in pregnancy and birth rates among Hispanic teens has been slower than that of teens from other racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Researchers offered many possible reasons, including more favorable attitudes toward pregnancy, lower contraceptive use, etc**.

About half of the women enrolled in PARTNRS to date identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino.  I am interested in understanding variation in our interview responses among participants of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. However, while race and ethnicity may be predictors of risk, what other factors, including neighborhood-level and relationship factors that are touched on in our study, will be significant predictors of risk?

*Stats from CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report, 2006. **Child Trends Research Brief, 2005.

A recent survey by Thailand’s Department of Disease Control reports; “the percentage of new HIV cases recorded among married couples has increased from 38.7% of new diagnoses in 2005 to 40% of new diagnoses in 2006″. Some interesting data revealed by the survey include:
(A) Between 44% and 52% of married couples in the country engage in unprotected sex.
(B) 22% of new HIV diagnoses were among men who have sex with men.
(C) 11% of men who are newly diagnosed contracted the virus from commercial sex workers.
(D) 10% contracted the virus from their partners.

In order to prevent the spread of the virus, particularly among married couples, Thailand’s Department of Disease Control and Ministry of Public health plan to provide 20 million condoms in hospitals to couples living with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the health ministry will provide HIV-positive people with 10 condoms monthly and antiretroviral drugs at NO COST.

Link to the Report: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=48171

How effective is abstinence-only education and will it truly have a positive effect on Public Health? New research is challenging the result and influence of abstinence-only education. Please click on the link below to listen to Eric White, of Best Men, and Deborah Roffman, a sex educator, share their thoughts on this interesting topic.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12195174

Fitting with our goal of understanding how both members of a couple influence sexual risk behavior, the World Health Organization recently released a report describing the effectiveness of innovative programs focusing on improving gender-based power inequities that can result in increased risk for HIV among women.  The report evaluated 24 programs in North America alone.  Among many topics, the project included a review of the effectiveness of programs engaging men or boys that focused on fatherhood, and sexual and reproductive health. 

Link to the Report: http://www.who.int/gender/documents/Engaging_men_boys.pdf