About that study of teens and STDs
Recently the results of a study conducted by the CDC splashed across news headlines: "1 in 4 teen girls has an STD." Many of the major news networks went on to include a handful of other statistics from the study, which were released on Tuesday at a press conference in Chicago.
Amidst the lock-up-your-daughters frenzy of these bold-faced headlines, nobody seemed to question why only teenage girls were selected for a study regarding STDs and not teenage boys as well. Curiously, there also seemed to be no question of the puzzling statistic, repeated by every major news outlet, that nearly half of the African-American girls in the study had at least one STD.
The study may have, understandably, focused on girls as opposed to boys because STDs tend to manifest themselves more severely in women than they do men. The study might have been an attempt to bring needed attention and funding to the area of women’s health. The results may have been released in the manner of a press report to trigger awareness and action in medical communities.
However, given that only 838 girls were surveyed in this study, with no further details provided regarding the demographics of this population, drawing broad generalizations about teenage girls based on this study alone is dangerous, and indeed smacks of bias. Women, particularly minority women, have long been unjustly targeted as populations responsible the spread of STDs, and thus populations that must be “controlled”. This flawed theory is only encouraged by selective statistics and headlines such as the one above. Though the numbers may draw attention to the problem of STDs, they do so in a manner that unequally assigns blame. Given that it takes two to tango…
-Roopali Malhotra
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Thank you for this post. Likewise the recent emphasis on vaccination for HPV is focused on girls, while it might also include boys. My gynecologist, father of two boys, told me he intended to have his sons vaccinated. If we are sincere in reducing cervical cancer, we should vaccinate both boys and girls.
- by VB on Mar 17, 2008 at 12:37 AM | link
I have been reading and rereading the data as presented in news articles and at the CDC's web site, and my concern is that the statistics are widely circulated, while it is very difficult to get a handle on research methodology and actual survey results.
How are survey respondents chosen? This isn't a random phone survey of thousands of individuals. These data are derived from a small group of people who were willing to submit to a number of intrusive physical tests and questions.
- by Janice Boyd on Mar 17, 2008 at 2:08 AM | link
In following up on data like this in the past I once found the widely touted figure was based on data collected entirely from teeen visiting a sexual health clinic, generally self-refering for a medical problem. Biassed much? Genuinely random or representitive samples are rare.
- by emily on Mar 17, 2008 at 10:17 AM | link
This article reeks of population bias and media frenzy. The data that was reported was gathered in a previous CDC study and reported for the CDC STD convention in Chicago. Furthermore the methodology was a survey that was mailed to patients who came in with an active gyn complaint. Its similar to going to an HIV clinic and saying 1/2 of the people surveyed had fulminant AIDs; it merely reflects population bias and allows irresponsible authors to make broad generalizations. These broad generalizations lead to a false set of fear in the general population. These fears boost revenues for pharmaceutical companies who design the HPV vaccine. More importantly, considering that the article is coming from the CDC, it would seem rather scientifically irresposible to publish data from a cohort of 834 patients and apply them to a population at large.
- by DMD on Mar 18, 2008 at 11:41 AM | link