According to a recent study, comprehensive sex education for teens, which includes birth control information, is the most effective way to prevent pregnancy and does not increase the chances teens will have sex.

"Teaching about contraception was not associated with increased risk of adolescent sexual activity or STD," the University of Washington (UW) researchers concluded. "Adolescents who received comprehensive sex education had a lower risk of pregnancy than adolescents who received abstinence-only or no sex education."

The authors analyzed records of 1,719 straight teens ages 15 to 19 taken from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. After demographic differences were considered, students who had taken comprehensive sex education classes (67 percent of students) were 60 percent less likely to report a pregnancy than those without any sex education (9 percent of students) and 50 percent less likely than teens who received abstinence-only education (24 percent of students). Moreover, they were no more likely to have intercourse or get an STD than their peers who received abstinence education.

The federal government has endorsed abstinence-only programs for more than a decade, and the Title V Abstinence Education Program was renewed through June 30. Some abstinence programs discuss contraceptives but emphasize their failure, not success, rates.

Compared with other developed nations, Americans have higher rates of teen pregnancy, abortion, and STDs. Groups that support abstinence programs, such as Spokane-based Teen-AID, question the conclusions of the study because even abstinence-only students are exposed to messages in society that premarital sex is acceptable as long as it is done safely.

"We're building more and more evidence that [abstinence-only] education isn't having much effect," said Pamela Kohler, program manager of UW's Center for AIDS and STD and the report's lead author.

The full report, "Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy," was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (2008;42(4):344-351).

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