Youths’ Knowledge and Perceptions of Health Risks Associated With Unprotected Oral Sex

Arianna Strome; N’dea Moore-Petinak; Marika Waselewski; Tammy Chang

doi:10.1370/afm.2761

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Table 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Poll Respondents

	n (%), n = 909^{^a}
Age, y, mean (SD)	18.9 (2.9)
14-17, n (%)	380 (41.8)
18-24	529 (58.2)
Gender, n (%)
Male	307 (33.8)
Female	533 (58.7)
Other	68 (7.5)
Race/Ethnicity, n (%)
Non-Hispanic White	528 (58.1)
Non-Hispanic Black	82 (9.0)
Hispanic	111 (12.2)
Non-Hispanic Other	187 (20.6)
Education, n (%)
<High school	463 (51)
High school graduate	79 (8.7)
Some college or tech school	235 (25.9)
Associate’s or tech graduate	32 (3.5)
≥Bachelor’s degree	99 (10.9)
Parent education, n (%)
≤High school	127 (14.0)
Some college or tech school	102 (11.2)
Associate’s or tech graduate	76 (8.4)
Bachelor’s degree	253 (27.9)
Master’s degree	241 (26.5)
Doctoral degree	109 (12.0)
HS free lunch (n = 901), n (%)
Yes	304 (33.7)
No	597 (66.3)
Region (n = 901), n (%)
West	162 (18.0)
Midwest	403 (44.7)
South	215 (23.9)
Northeast	121 (13.4)

HS = high school; tech = technical.
↵^a1 participant was missing all demographic information except age.

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Table 2.

Questions, Themes, and Example Participant Quotes

Question, Theme^{^a}	All n (%)	Female n (%)	Male n (%)	Example Participant Quote
Q1 : A recent study showed that very few youth use protection (condoms/dental dams) during oral sex. Why do you think this is? (n = 893)
Lack of education^{^b}	200 (22.4)	139 (26.7)	43 (14.2)	“People aren’t well informed on safe sex due to the state of American sex education”
No perceived STI risk	177 (19.8)	109 (20.9)	52 (17.2)	“Because they don’t think they can get stds from oral”
Sensation/pleasure	172 (19.3)	95 (18.2)	66 (21.8)	“I think they think that condoms will result in a loss of pleasure”
No pregnancy risk	140 (15.7)	76 (14.6)	54 (17.8)	“I think that’s because there’s no risk for pregnancy so they don’t think they need to use protection”
Access/cost	104 (11.6)	58 (11.1)	32 (10.6)	“They probably don’t because it’s either too expensive or they feel weird buying these items”
Q2: On a scale of 1 to 5, how risky do you think it is to have oral sex without protection? (n = 883)
1 (Not risky at all)^{^b}	72 (8.2)	26 (5.0)	42 (14.3)	“1 because fertilization is never actually achieved, it is just for pleasure”
2^{^b}	205 (23.2)	96 (18.4)	94 (32.0)	“2 You can’t really get anything super harmful from it. And it’s unlikely to get anything harmful at all. As long as you get tested and treated if any symptoms show up you should be ok.”
3	269 (30.5)	163 (31.0)	88 (29.9)	“3 There’s a chance for sexual disease transmission but lower than with vaginal sex and no worry of pregnancy”
4^{^b}	136 (15.4)	100 (19.1)	28 (9.5)	“4 You don’t know what disease someone could have”
5 (Very risky)^{^b}	178 (20.2)	124 (23.7)	36 (12.2)	“5 STIs can be extremely serious and easily transferred”
Q3: What do you think are the risks (if any) to not using protection during oral sex? (n = 864)
STIs/diseases	760 (88.0)	455 (89.0)	245 (85.4)	“You could get a disease/infection like with any other type of sex.”
Seems not risky^{^b}	49 (5.7)	16 (3.1)	31 (10.8)	“...there aren’t as many risks by not using protection because it doesn’t involve the danger of getting someone pregnant”
Q4: What might help more people use protection during oral sex? (n = 855)
Better education^{^b}	459 (53.7)	293 (58.3)	129 (45.4)	“It may help to have some more education about the consequences of oral sex without protection.”
Normalization	163 (19.1)	103 (20.5)	45 (15.9)	“Make it normalized in media (television, porn, etc.) and make condoms and other forms of protection taste and feel better”
Access/cost	128 (15.0)	75 (14.9)	37 (13.0)	“Lowering the price of condoms”
More options	90 (10.5)	48 (9.5)	34 (12.0)	“Making it more available”

↵^aTotals may not add to 100% as codes are not mutually exclusive.
↵^bChi-square P value <0.01 for comparison across genders; genders designated as “other” not included in table due to small numbers (n = 18).

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VISUAL ABSTRACT - link below

Visual abstract. Young people are uninformed on safe oral sex practices.

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VISUAL ABSTRACT

waselewski-vis_abstract.png