birth control pills

Majority of Young Adults Don’t Know Enough About Birth Control Methods, Study Finds

By |

A majority of young adults don’t know enough about contraceptives, according to results from a new Guttmacher Institute study. Six in 10 supposedly “underestimate” the effectiveness of birth control pills and other oral contraceptives. The report, Young Adults’ Contraceptive Knowledge, Norms and Attitudes: Associations with Risk of Unintended Pregnancy, involved 1,800 young adults, ages 18 to 29. Although approximately half of the male responders - and about 70 percent of female survey takers - stated that they were “committed to avoiding pregnancy,” around 40 percent of the survey population believed birth control was irrelevant, stating that “when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen.”

The study shows a clear connection between young adults’ knowledge of contraceptive methods and devices and the likelihood they would engage in unprotected sexual intercourse. According to the authors, the odds of a female responder having unprotected sex within a three month window decreased by about nine percent with every correct answer she submitted for the questionnaire, with the odds of the responder using long-acting forms of contraception, such as hormonal treatments, rising by 17 percent.

condom qr code

Young People “Checking In” Using Condoms With QR Codes

By |

Young people using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and the location-based Foursquare are often criticized for posting photos from drunken parties or sharing mundane personal details such as what they ate for breakfast. Now, new geo-tracking condoms are taking the concept of over-sharing to a whole new level, encouraging young people to “check in” wherever they are having sex. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest—serving Alaska, Idaho and western Washington, including Seattle—has been distributing to college students 55,000 condoms with QR codes (small, square barcodes that can be scanned by smartphones). Condom users scan the code, which takes them to a website called “Where Did You Wear It?” that allows them to anonymously post the location of their sexual encounter. The website asks for details such as age, sex and relationship type, and users can even rate how good the experience was.