Washington, Sept 18: A new study has revealed that abstinence-plus programs (to use condoms) are better than abstinence-only programs when it comes to reducing HIV risk among teenagers.

US government has favoured and sponsored “abstinence-only” program because it thinks that teaching adolescents anything about safer sex might encourage risky activity. However, recent studies have found that abstinence-only programs have failed to reduce HIV risk.

To check whether “abstinence-plus” programs were really more effective, or whether they just ‘confuse the issue’, Kristen Underhill and colleagues screened over 20,000 research reports to identify 39 studies of abstinence-plus programs including more than 37,000 North American youth, typically in schools, community facilities, and healthcare settings.

The results revealed that 23 of these reports had a beneficial effect on at least one sexual behaviour reported by the participating adolescents, including increased abstinence, more condom use, and less unprotected sex.

No report found that participants who were taught “abstinence plus” increased their risk by starting to have sex at an earlier age, or by decreasing their condom use when they did have sex. The study also found limited evidence that some abstinence-plus programs can reduce pregnancy rates among teenage girls.

Overall, the study concluded that abstinence-plus approaches do not undermine program messages encouraging abstinence, nor do they undermine program messages encouraging safer sex.

In a commentary accompanying the research article, HIV prevention researchers Shari L. Dworkin and John Santelli point out that abstinence-plus programs have been excluded from US funding allocated for abstinence-based programs. They note that US government promotion of abstinence-only programs has created disarray in efforts to prevent HIV in developing countries. (With Inputs from ANI)