Young Girls, Older Partners Leads to High STD Risk

New research demonstrates that teenage girls who have older partners are more likely than girls their same age with younger partners to report high-risk behaviors that can lead to STDs.

Elin Begley of Emory University in Atlanta found that teens who said they were dating someone at least two years older were half as likely as girls with partners closer to their own age to report consistent condom use during the past 30 days. Furthermore, girls with older partners were more than twice as likely to say their boyfriends had been with other partners during the past six months.

STD screening showed that those with older partners were almost four times as likely to have chlamydia. The trends persisted regardless of the women's level of education and knowledge about preventing HIV and other STDs.

All the participants in the current study were pregnant. Had they not been screened for STDs, untreated chlamydia could have posed serious health consequences for the fetuses. Begley screened and surveyed 170 pregnant African American girls between 14 and 20 who came to a prenatal clinic.

Begley gave several reasons why teens dating older men might take more sexual health risks than young girls with younger partners. Older partners, she noted, may be less willing to wear condoms and more interested in pregnancy. Also, she pointed out that older men may have had more partners and therefore would be more likely to give young partners chlamydia. Begley reported her findings at the recent 130th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia.

She suggested that clinicians educate young women about protecting themselves from STDs and consider asking the age of their partners. Furthermore, she stressed that women with older partners could benefit from repeated STD screening during their pregnancies, as they were less likely to use condoms and thereby risked reinfection.

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