Megha Majumder

From the introduction section:

Why did the authors decide to conduct this study? What questions
were they trying to answer? What was their outcome(s) and
exposure(s) of interest?
The authors decided to conduct this study because they wanted to see
if there were any long-term negative health consequences based on
the age that an individual had his or her sexual debut; they also
wanted to see if the practice of abstinence until marriage lessened any
kind of negative health consequences they expected to see in those
who had pre-marital sex. Exposures of interest include: early initiation
of sexual intercourse; relative age of sexual intercourse; waiting until
marriage to have sex or having sex before marriage. Outcome of
interest include increased umbers of sexual partners, recent sexual
intercourse under the influence of alcohol; long-term negative health
outcomes; health outcomes (when compared between individuals who
had pre-marital sexual debuts versus those who waited until marriage
to have intercourse).

From the methods section:

What many people were included in this study? How were they
selected?
There were 8466 American people included in this study, and these
people were participants of the National Sexual Health Survey (19951996) who were contacted and interviewed via random-digit dialing.
The overall cooperation rate was 65%.

From the results section:

What has this research found? What summary statements about the
study as a whole can you make?
Summary Statement: This research has found that there are problems
associated with the early initiation of sexual intercourse (early sexual
debuts), including long-term negative health outcomes such as an

increase in sexual-risk behaviors and issues with physical sexual

functioning.
More specifically, these problems include higher numbers of sexual
partners and more sex under the influence. Although a later sexual
debut is associated with less problems, it has its own set of issues.
Among these include issues with arousal and orgasm, particularly with
males (although these issues are also prevalent in those who have
early sexual debuts).

From the discussion and conclusion sections:

What are the implications of this research for public health practice?
What are areas for future research?
The implications of this research for public health practice include the
fact that sex education is important to prevent the negative outcomes
observed in this study, as an early sexual debuts correlation to
negative health outcomes is an indicator that we are not preparing
young people to become sexually active in a proper manner. Another
implication is that abstinence-only education could actually increase
health risks, and thus the focus regarding sex ed should shift to
promoting sexual health information and skills that are relevant to
modern day youth. Areas for future research include investigating how
sexual initiation patterns affect future health outcomes, as this study
proved that they do (but not how).

Overall:
List and define new vocabulary and concepts that you didnt know
before. Also list any unfamiliar words or phrases that you would like to
be able to define.
Sexual self-efficacy; normative age; risky sexual partner; confounding
factors; STI (examples) - these are concepts that are a bit fuzzy to me
in the context of the article.

What parts of the article did you not fully understand or still have
questions about?
I did not fully understand how the researchers measured the earliness
and lateness of sexual intercourse, especially since sexual intercourse
is so broadly defined. Also, the research states that it does not allow
for causal interpretations, but the point of the study is to determine
whether or not an early sexual debut correlates with long-term
negative health outcomes in individuals. This is kind of confusing
because if it isnt causal, then how can we be sure that early initial
sexual intercourses lead to a higher likelihood of negative health
outcomes, as the study suggests?

How would you clearly and concisely summarize the conclusions of this
article to the rest of your classmates, who know something about these
general ideas but havent read the article?

The timing of initial sexual intercourses is seen to correlate positively

with certain long-term sexual health outcomes; for example, an earlier
sexual debut is seen to relate to risk factors for sexually-transmitted
infections; a late debut was seen to relate to fewer risk factors, but had
its own set of problems, including issues with arousal (especially for
men).

Critical thinking:
Do you agree with the authors conclusions? Why or why not? (think
about the evidence that they use)
I do not entirely agree with the authors conclusions because as of
today, they do not accurately represent modern youth - the people
who were contacted were part of a 1995-1996 survey, which is over 20
years old! Times have changed, and I believe that with these changing
times, having an earlier sexual debut is more popular, and will lead to

less negative outcomes. Also, the teaching of abstinence is not nearly

as prevalent today as it was then. For the most part, the USA
mandates sex ed to be taught in a fashion that is relevant and realistic.

What are additional areas for research that might be of interest based
on this review?
The type of sexual intercourse that people first experience might be of
interest; just as there is a gateway drug, there could also be a gateway
form of intercourse that might lead to more unsafe forms of
intercourse. Another area of research might be to include LGBTQ
people in studies such as this one, and see if the results are similar or
different. This study was based off heterosexual people (unless stated
otherwise) and married couples, which is biased.