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ABSTRACT
Objective To determine whether adolescents who present at a sexual health service aged 13 have more sexual health problems in later years than those who present aged 15.
Methods A case-note review was done in 2009 to identify sexual health problems for all 13-year-olds who registered with Sandyford sexual health service from April 2003 until December 2004 (group 1). This was compared with selected notes from adolescents who were 15 years old at the time of registration (group 2).
Results Eighty-eight youths aged 13 and 632 aged 15 registered in the aforementioned period. Ninety records of 15-year-olds were selected for comparison. Twenty two of the 86 girls in group 1 and 31 of the 87 girls in group 2 had at least one pregnancy. Twenty-one adolescents in group 1 and 25 of those in group 2 had a sexually transmitted infection. Thirteen youths in group 1 and one in group 2 had suffered a sexual assault.
Conclusion Adolescents aged 13 at first registration with this service have more sexual health problems and warrant additional support throughout their teenage years. A very young age at first registration should prompt health professionals to provide additional clinical, emotional and social support.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are indebted to Dr David Young, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde, for assistance in the statistical analysis of the data. The authors are grateful to Dr Natasha Astill for her review of 13-year-old adolescents who registered at our service in 2010.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.