In a finding sure to send ripples of fear through the showbiz world, profs in Florida have disclosed that having sex with people who are much older or younger than you increases your chances of catching a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD).
“Partner selection is an area of STD prevention that could complement what we are already doing with promoting condom use, and could possibly really help people,” says Stephanie Staras, Florida Uni epidemiology prof.
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“If somehow we could convince individuals to incorporate this information in a meaningful way into their decision-making, then we could reduce STDs.”
Staras' team evaluated various things about sexual partners which might indicate that they'd be likely to give you the clap. These included obvious ones like them having had an STD before or having had sex with other people lately. Other warning signs of a possible Cupid's catarrh carrier are these: having done jail time, marjuana or alcohol problems, or a five-year-plus age difference from oneself.
Apparently if all these factors in a partner are considered together, they can affect one's chances of getting a dose even more than use or non-use of condoms. Or in other words, having sex with dope-smoking, alcoholic, poxed jailbird philanderers outside your own age group is riskier than doing it unprotected.
“It’s all about the risk of the partner and sometimes we forget that,” commented Richard A Crosby, who is "the DDI endowed professor" at Kentucky Uni.
Staras' and her colleagues' research was carried out by surveying people who attended STD clinics between 1999 and 2002.
The resulting paper, Sexual Partner Characteristics and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Adolescents and Young Adults, can be read by subscibers to Sexually Transmitted Diseases - Journal of the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association. ®