Sexual health of French adolescents with sickle cell disease

Abstract

Purpose

Focussing on sickle cell disease (SCD), the objective of this study was to assess adolescents’ sexual heath experience in the context of their chronic illness.

Materials and methods

We included teenagers from 14 to 19 years old followed for SCD in a hospital located in Créteil (France) from March 2017 to February 2018. Their sexual health experience was assessed by a self-questionnaire with three key themes: contraceptive experience, awareness of sexuality with chronic disease and level of information on the genetic transmission of the disease.

Results

99 questionnaires were analysed. Only six SCD adolescents (one girl and five boys) reported being sexually active. Despite a very regular follow-up of their illness, only 13% of the boys and girls had received information on contraception at the hospital. Most adolescents (85% of boys and 81% of girls) did not think that the disease would interfere with sexual intercourse. The genetic pattern was well known (85% of boys and 87% of girls).

Conclusion

Young people with SCD need more information on contraception. Clinicians caring for them should be aware of the need for sexual health information in order to propose prevention actions adapted to these young people with chronic disease.

摘要

目的：本研究聚焦镰状细胞病(SCD), 目的是评估这种慢性病的青少年患者的性健康。

材料与方法：我们纳入了从2017年3月至2018年2月在Créteil (法国)的一所医院因SCD进行随访的14到19岁的青少年。他们的性健康经历通过自我问卷进行评估, 问卷包含三个关键主题：避孕经验、对慢性病患者性的认识, 以及关于疾病遗传方式的认识水平。

结果：一共分析了99份问卷。仅有6名SCD青少年患者（一名女孩和五名男孩）报告性活跃。尽管针对病情进行了非常规律的随访, 但只有13%的男孩和女孩在医院接受到了避孕知识。大多数青少年(85%的男孩和81%的女孩)不认为这种疾病会阻碍性行为。对疾病的遗传方式认识良好（85%∼87%）。

结论：SCD的年轻患者需要更多关于避孕的信息。护理这些患者的临床医生应该认识到性健康信息的必要性以便提出适合这些慢性病患者的预防措施。

Keywords:

• Contraception
• sexual health
• sickle cell disease
• adolescents
• experience

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mélanie Vassal for her contribution to the data collection of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).