School sex education: an experimental programme with educational and medical benefit

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Abstract
Objective: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 received their own sex education programmes with populations which received a novel sex education intervention that included medical and peer led teaching. Setting:Comprehensive secondary schools; control and intervention populations within Devon, and distant controls from rural, semiurban, and urban areas of England excluding major conurbations. Subjects: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 conducted under “examinationconditions” and invigilated by the research team and other trained medical staff. Results:In the intervention population, progressive increase in knowledge related to contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and prevalence of sexual activity (χ2 (trend) P1.00 with 95% confidence limits not including 1.00 for all series and for comparisons with both control populations); odds ratio (control v programme) for sexual activity of 1.45, controlling for sociodemographic variables. Conclusion:School sex education that includes specific targeted methods with the direct use of medical staff and peers can produce behavioural changes that lead to health benefit.