Abstinence-plus education—interventions that promote sexual abstinence as the best method of preventing the spread of HIV, but also encourage safe-sex practices including condom use—can reduce a person’s risk of contracting HIV, say researchers at the University of Oxford.
Some abstinence-only supporters say that abstinence-plus education might undermine abstinence messages, while others have said that promoting only abstinence could detract from safe sex messages.
Researchers examined data on approximately 37,724 North American youth and found that many abstinence-plus programs appeared to reduce both short- and long-term HIV risk behavior.
A series of studies published this summer found abstinence-only education ineffective in preventing the spread of HIV.
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