William Atkins
Tuesday, 09 September 2008 23:56
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
The Johns Hopkins researchers found that 30% of the women and 42% of the men reported binge drinking. Men did not differ in the amount of anal sex (a contributor of STDs) they participated in, when related to the amount of alcohol consumed.
However, it was found that women had more anal sex with increased alcohol use.
In fact, women who binge drank engaged in anal sex more than twice the rate than women who modestly drank alcohol but did not binge drink, and over three times the rate than women who did not drink alcohol at all.
The researchers stated,
“Having multiple sex partners was more than twice as common among women binge drinkers than women abstainers. Gonorrhea was nearly 5 times higher among women binge drinkers compared to women abstainers. The association between binge drinking and sexual behaviors/gonorrhea remained after controlling for drug use. Among men, rates of risky sexual behaviors/STDs were high, but did not differ by alcohol use.”
They concluded,
“Rates of binge drinking among STD clinic patients were high. Among women, binge drinking was uniquely associated with risky sexual behaviors and an STD diagnosis. Our findings support the need to routinely screen for binge drinking as part of clinical care in STD clinics. Women binge drinkers, in particular, may benefit from interventions that jointly address binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors. Developing gender-specific interventions could improve overall health outcomes in this population.”
Dr. Hutton discusses the conclusons of the paper on page three.
