A significant proportion of adolescents and young adults who test positive for sexually transmitted diseases report not having had any sexual activity in the past year, according to a Pediatrics study.
Some 14,000 young adults (mean age, 22) were interviewed in their homes about their sexual activity and provided urine specimens to test for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis. Roughly 12% of those who tested positive for an STD said they had not had sex the past 12 months, and 6% of the STD-positive participants reported never having had sex. No sociodemographic factors were associated with discrepancies between self-reported history and STD results.
The authors say that relying solely on self-reported penile/vaginal sexual activity to assess STD risk could be imprecise and problematic. They conclude: "If pediatricians and adolescent medicine physicians do not test all young people, there are likely a substantial number of missed cases ... that will go undiagnosed, untreated, and spread to future sex partners."
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