Targeted brief intervention helps reduce teenage pregnancies

A rapid reduction in repeat teenage pregnancies was achieved with a brief intervention aimed at targeting pregnant or parenting adolescents. The strategy adopted motivational interviewing with facilitated contraception access. There was an 18.1% absolute reduction in self-reported repeat pregnancy in the intervention group relative to the control group (20.5% vs 38.6%, P<0.001), and there was a 13.7% absolute increase in self-reported long-acting reversible contraception use in the intervention group relative to the control group (40.2% vs 26.5%, P<0.002). There was no evidence of harmful effects of the intervention on sexual risk behaviours, such as having sexual intercourse without a condom or with a greater number of partners.

Am J Obstet Gynecol 2017;217:423.e1–9. doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2017.06.010

Sexting among US adolescents remains a fairly common behaviour

Sexting – exchanging sexually explicit mobile phone pictures of genitalia and breasts – is a widely acknowledged practice among adolescents. A survey conducted in a single private high school in Salt Lake City (USA) involving over 600 students was repeated after 4 years. The practice remains popular. Reported rates of sending (males 15.8%, females 13.6%) and receiving (males 40.5%, females 30.6%) sexually explicit phone pictures were generally similar to those reported …