SCHOOL SEX-EDUCATION - AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM WITH EDUCATIONAL AND MEDICAL BENEFIT

Objectives-To develop and teach a school sex education programme that will lead to a decrease in sexual activity. Design-A matched internal and external control experiment, comparing control populations which r eceived their own sex education programmes with populations which rece ived a novel sex education intervention that included medical and peer led teaching. Setting-Comprehensive secondary schools; control and in tervention populations within Devon, and distant controls from rural, semiurban, and urban areas of England excluding major conurbations. Su bjects-Schoolchildren were taught from age 12 to 16; three successive cohorts of students were evaluated in school year 11 (mean age 16.0). Main outcome measures-questionnaire ducted under ''examination conditi ons'' invigilated by the research team and other trained medical staff . Results-In the intervention population, progressive increase in know ledge related to contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and pre valence of sexual activity (chi(2) (trend) P<0.001 for all three serie s); relative increase between intervention and control populations in knowledge, relative decrease in attitudes suggesting that sexual inter course is of itself beneficial to teenagers and their relationships, r elative decrease in sexual activity, and relative increase in approval of their ''sex education'' (relative risk >1.00 with 95% confidence l imits not including 1.00 for all series and for comparisons with both control populations); odds ratio (control v programme) for sexual acti vity of 1.45, controlling for sociodemographic variables. Conclusion-S chool sex education that includes specific targeted methods with the d irect use of medical staff and peers can produce behavioural changes t hat lead to health benefit.