William Atkins
Tuesday, 09 September 2008 23:56
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
According to a Johns Hopkins study on the relationship between alcohol use and sexual behaviors, women were found to be at a much higher risk from getting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) when they binge drink alcoholic beverages. However, the same cannot be said of men.
Binge drinking, or “heavy drinking,” is defined generally as having more than five alcoholic drinks for men, and four alcoholic drinks for women, over a one- to three-hour period. These figures may vary among individuals depending on weight and other relevant factors. Binge drinking is related with the intention of getting highly intoxicated.
The
article “The Relationship Between Recent Alcohol Use and Sexual Behaviors: Gender Differences Among Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic Patients” was written by
Heidi E. Hutton, Mary E. McCaul, Patricia B. Santora, and Emily J. Erbelding.
It is based on their research from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Medicine, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Hutton, McCaul, and Santora) and the Baltimore City Health Department (Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.) (Erbelding).
They state in the abstract to their paper,
“Binge drinking is associated with risky sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Few studies have investigated this by gender or in an STD clinic. This cross-sectional study examined the association between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors/STDs among patients attending an urban STD clinic.”
The researchers used 671 STD clinic patients, of which, 349 were females and 322 were males. Each patient was tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). They were also asked about their recent alcohol and drug use, along with any
“risky sexual behaviors” that they had recently participated in.
The results of the tests and self-administered interviews were analyzed to see if there was an association between binge drinking and sexual behaviors, specifically the acquisition of STDs. The data was adjusted based on age, employment, drug use, and other relevant factors.
The results and conclusions of the study are found on the next pages.
