New CDC Data Highlight Differences in HIV-Related Risk Behavior Trends Among Racial/Ethnic Subgroups of U.S. Adolescents

New CDC Data Highlight Differences in HIV-Related Risk Behavior Trends Among Racial/Ethnic Subgroups of U.S. Adolescents

New data released by CDC this week during the 2012 International AIDS Conference indicate fewer U.S. high school students overall are engaging in sexual behaviors that put them at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to the 20-year trend analysis, African-American youth achieved the greatest declines in risk behavior. Overall progress, however, has stalled in recent years, and black youth still report higher levels of sexual risk behaviors than youth of other racial or ethnic groups. Reducing sexual risk behaviors among America’s youth is critical to achieving the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which calls for educating all young people on HIV, as well as intensified prevention efforts for populations at greatest risk, including youth.The data released this week come from CDC’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a nationally representative biennial survey of public and private school students in grades 9–12. Between 1991 and 2011, the study shows that —

• The proportion of U.S. high school students who ever had sex declined from 54% to 47%.
• The proportion of high school students who had sex within the preceding three months declined from 38% to 34%.
• The proportion of students who had multiple (four or more) sex partners declined from 19% to 15%.
• The proportion of sexually active high school students who used a condom the last time they had sex increased from 46% to 60%. 

Sexual risk behavior declined most dramatically among black youth over the 20-year study period, and as a result, the gap in risk behavior between these students and their white counterparts has narrowed considerably. In 1991, black students were nearly two-thirds more likely to have had sexual intercourse and almost three times as likely to report having multiple partners, as compared to white students. By 2011, the disparity between black and white students who everhad sex was cut in half, and the difference in the likelihood of having multiple sex partners declined even more (58%). The analysis also shows that many indicators of progress have plateaued over the past decade, and that significant racial disparities in risk continue:   

• Since 2001, there has been no significant overall change in the proportion of U.S. high school students who reported ever having sex or who had multiple sex partners.
• The percentage of sexually active students who used a condom the last time they had sex has been stable since 2003.
• Black students report higher levels of sexual risk behavior than their white or Hispanic peers, with the exception of reporting higher levels of condom use.
• Condom use among sexually active black students has been declining since 1999.
• No significant change in sexual risk behaviors among Hispanic students has occurred since 1991.

The press release and the MMWR — “Trends in HIV-Related Risk Behaviors Among High School Students - United States, 1991-2011”— are available on the YRBS Web site at www.cdc.gov/yrbs. 
For more information about the YRBS:

• Web site:  www.cdc.gov/yrbs
• Phone:     1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636)
• E-mail:     nccddashinfo@cdc.gov