Young Age at First Intercourse & Subsequent Risk-Taking Behaviour: An Epidemiological Study of More than 20,000 Danish Men from the General Population
AIM:
First
intercourse at the age of 14 years or younger is usually considered high-risk
behaviour for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It has been linked to
other types of risky behaviour in women, while conflicting results have been
obtained for men. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of first
intercourse at a young age in various birth cohorts of men and to determine any
association with later risky behaviour.
METHODS:
We
studied 22,979 randomly selected men aged 18-45 years from the Danish general
male population who responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Multiple
sexual partners over a lifetime, multiple new sexual partners within the past 6
months, intercourse with a commercial sex worker, having an STI, binge drinking
and current smoking were considered risky behaviour.
RESULTS:
First
intercourse at the age of 14 years or younger was more prevalent in younger
(14%) than in older (10%) birth cohorts and among men with shorter schooling.
Young age at sexual debut was associated with a more than twofold increase in
the risks for subsequent risky behaviour.
CONCLUSIONS:
More
than 10% of Danish men first had sex at an early age, and this was closely
related to subsequent risk-taking behaviour.
- 1Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 2Statistics, Bioinformatics and Registries, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 3Merck Research Laboratories, North Wales, PA, USA.
- 4Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark Department of Gynaecology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark susanne@cancer.dk.
- Scand J Public Health. 2014 Aug;42(6):511-7. doi: 10.1177/1403494814538123. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
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