Sex health clinics should offer young people alcohol advice
Joe Lepper
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sexual health clinics should start offering advice about safe drinking, according to a British Youth Council survey of young people.
The survey of more than 1,000 young people highlighted a strong link between drinking and having unprotected sex, but found widespread ignorance about latest guidelines surrounding safe drinking.
While eight out of 10 knew where to access sexual health advice, only six out of 10 knew where to go for advice about alcohol issues. Around a half of those surveyed did not know what the latest guidelines are for safe drinking among adults.
Most agreed that advice on drinking and how it can lead to unsafe sex should be more widely available, particularly at sexual health clinics.
It emerged from the survey that half of those who had regretted having sex had been drinking beforehand. A third said they had been drinking before the first time they had sex and a fifth of these said they would not have done so if they were sober.
The survey is being presented as evidence to the Royal College of Physicians Working Party on Sex and Alcohol, which will publish its report next year.
