CDC: many adults not receiving sexual risk assessments

(HealthDay)—Less than half of women and a quarter of men with recent sexual activity receive sexual risk assessment, according to a March data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Casey E. Copen, M.P.H., Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., used data from the 2011 to 2015 National Survey of Family Growth to examine the percentage of women and men aged 15 to 44 years with recent sexual activity who received a sexual risk assessment in the past year. Data were analyzed for 4,659 women and 7,397 men with recent sexual activity.

The researchers found that 47 and 23 percent of women and men, respectively, with recent sexual activity received a sexual risk assessment from a doctor or medical care provider in the past year. There was variation in the receipt of sexual risk assessment by age, Hispanic origin and race, sexual orientation, poverty-level income, and current health insurance status. Among persons who had two or more opposite-sex partners in the past year and for men who had a male sexual partner or any HIV risk-related sexual behaviors in the past year the receipt of a sexual risk assessment was higher.

"The data indicate that HIV/sexually transmitted infection testing within the past year was more common among persons who had a sexual risk assessment in the past year," the authors write.

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