Increased sexual risk taking behavior among Swedish female university students: repeated cross-sectional surveys.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to perform a repeated cross-sectional study of female university students' sexual and contraceptive behavior, as well as experiences of pornography and sexual harassment and compare the findings with those from earlier studies.

METHODS

Waiting-room questionnaires to female university students (n = 315) visiting a Student Health Centre in Sweden. Similar investigations had been performed earlier, which enabled comparisons.

RESULTS

Almost all women (98%) had experienced intercourse and giving oral sex (94%). Condoms were most often used at first intercourse (72%) and combined oral contraceptives at latest intercourse (67%). The ever use of emergency contraceptive pills had increased from 22% to 52% over five years and there was a tendency towards more risk-taking behavior with more sexual partners (mean 5.4 in 1999 and mean 7.4 in 2004), more experience of first-date intercourse without a condom (37-45%), and more self-reported sexually transmitted infections (14-21%). The proportion of women who had undergone an abortion remained stable (6%) and fewer women reported ever being sexually harassed in 2004 compared to 1999.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, contraceptive use remained stable over time, but there was a trend towards more risky sexual behavior with more sexual partners, more unprotected first-date intercourse, and more self-reported sexually transmitted infections. Induced abortions, however, had not increased, but the use of emergency contraceptive pills had more than doubled in the five years between 1999 and 2004.