Increased sexual risk taking behavior among Swedish female university students: repeated cross‐sectional surveys

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Abstract
Background. The aim of this study was to perform a repeated cross‐sectional study of female university students’ sexual and contraceptive behavior, as well as experiences of pornography and sexual harassment and compare the findings with those from earlier studies. Methods. Waiting‐room questionnaires to female university students (n=315) visiting a Student Health Centre in Sweden. Similar investigations had been performed earlier, which enabled comparisons. Results. Almost all women (98%) had experienced intercourse and giving oral sex (94%). Condoms were most often used at first intercourse (72%) and combined oral contraceptives at latest intercourse (67%). The ever use of emergency contraceptive pills had increased from 22% to 52% over five years and there was a tendency towards more risk‐taking behavior with more sexual partners (mean 5.4 in 1999 and mean 7.4 in 2004), more experience of first‐date intercourse without a condom (37–45%), and more self‐reported sexually transmitted infections (14–21%). The proportion of women who had undergone an abortion remained stable (6%) and fewer women reported ever being sexually harassed in 2004 compared to 1999. Conclusions. In conclusion, contraceptive use remained stable over time, but there was a trend towards more risky sexual behavior with more sexual partners, more unprotected first‐date intercourse, and more self‐reported sexually transmitted infections. Induced abortions, however, had not increased, but the use of emergency contraceptive pills had more than doubled in the five years between 1999 and 2004.

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