Objective: To explore age differences in factors associated with positive sexually transmitted diseases (STD) status among a sample of African-American adolescent females.
Methods: Data were collected via ACASI from 701 African-American adolescent females (14-20 years) seeking services at reproductive health clinics. Adolescents provided self-collected vaginal swabs assayed using NAAT to assess the prevalence of three STDs.
Results: Younger adolescents (14-17 years) had significantly higher rates of STDs than older adolescents (18-20 years), but older adolescents had significantly higher levels of STD-associated risk behavior. In controlled analysis, having a casual sex partner was the only variable significantly associated with a positive STD test for younger adolescents, and prior history of STD and higher impulsivity were significantly associated with testing STD positive among older adolescents.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that developmentally tailored STD/HIV prevention interventions are needed for younger and older subgroups of adolescent females to help reduce their risk of infection.