Skip to main content

Playing with figures of sexual health




A single research project can be reported on in different ways depending on what you want to do. Take the following two articles both reporting on the same research by the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. The research shows how many girls in the study thought the HPV vaccine also reduced their risk of catching other STIs.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083260/One-teenage-girls-thinks-HPV-vaccine-cuts-risk-contracting-STDs.html
http://www.healthnews.com/en/news/Some-Girls-Overestimate-HPV-Vaccine-Protection/3hFUdOev1E8wSjg313QPZq/ 

The daily mail report emphasis 1 in 4, I believe this is because they are trying to show how it is a big problem. Where as Health News states "show that a small percentage of girls" I believe this is because they are trying to show it is not a big problem. Both quoting the same study with the same figure of 23.6% of girls having the HPV vaccine believing it will reduce their risk of catching other STIs. 

Now this is a common occurrence in the sexual health field as many people reporting on it have an agenda. And it is true that no one can be completely free from agenda but sex news seems to be riff with agendas. People always seems to have an axe to grind. Which is why it is so important to carefully look at the sources and request figures when they are not provided. 

When I do small scale surveys I always try to be as clear and open as I can be about the methods I use and the details of the statistics. But I am sure my own bias and agenda (sub-consciously if not consciously) impact how I interpret my own results. But that is another reason to publish not only your conclusions but your workings. Share everything. If you care about finding out the true answer and not just supporting your own theory you will be pleased to welcome alternate conclusions as they can help balance your own findings.   


So what has this got to mean for the HPV study. Is this a problem or isn't it? I believe that even 1% would show that more education was needed. (But my agenda as a sex and relationship educator would encourage this). But the reporting in the Daily Mail goes on to talk about controversy in the USA about the claimed consequences of this vaccine. It seems like the article is trying to support the basic argument that HPV vaccine = bad with a new argument. HPV vaccine makes people think they are safe from other STIs and so take more risks therefore HPV vaccine = bad. 


Lets hope more balance will arise in all news (but especially sexual health news) by the rise in citizen journalism.  
Labels:

Comments

  1. Glenn Jacob23 February 2012 at 09:00

    Great information !
    Thank you so much for sharing it. that's amazing!
    Oral Jelly

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glenn Jacob14 March 2012 at 11:26

    This blog has very nice and informative!
    Keep update...
    Thank for sharing .
    kamagrafast

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A RSE reading list

Sometimes people ask me what reading I recommend around RSE, so I thought I would put together a bit of a list.  Key (free) articles and reports  Young people’s RSE UK poll  Sex Education Forum (2018) RSE outcome variations due to facilitator differences  Young et al (2018) What do young people think about their school-based sex and relationship education? A qualitative synthesis of young people's views and experiences Pound et al. (2016) Review of sexual abuse in schools and college s Ofsted (2021) National and International RSE Guidance  UNESCO international guidance on RSE  UNESCO (2018) England   Department for Education full guidance on statutory relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education  Department for Education (2019) Wales Curriculum for Wales guidance and code for Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)  (Consultation stage) Welsh Government (2021)  Scotland  Guidance for teac...
1 comment
Read more

Review of Channel 4's Sex in Class

Review of Channel 4's Sex in Class from a relationship and sex educator's perspective. In this review I will try and bring my perspective as a relationship and sex educator to look at Channel 4's one off show Sex In Class . The show is about a Belgian sexologist Goedele Liekens  testing out her approach to relationship and sex education for 15-16 year olds at a Lancashire school. You can read some great overall reviews from Jules Hillier at Brook  and  Sam Wollaston at the Guardian   of the show. In this blog I am trying to focus specifically on my my perspective as a relationship and sex educator on Goedele's content and approach.  Goedele Liekens with her charges in Sex in Class. Photograph: Matt Squire The show starts with a pretty unsurprising statistic of " 83% of kids have seen porn by the time they are 13" (source not cited) and goes on to show how teachers at this school don't think current RSE is good enough and also gives some quot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creating a physical RSE resource - See It Shout It

I love making new relationships and sex education resources. " See It Shout It ", is the latest resource I have made to help young people grow in confidence to verbalise sex related words. I was asked how I choose the 31 icons that made the resource and I thought the creation process might be interesting to talk about.  Normally I create activities that can be shared digitally and then printed out or used with a projector. But sometimes I am involved in creating physical products. The process is similar for both but there are a few extra steps with making a physical product to be sold. The barriers to start making your own high quality resources is lower then ever and new creators can always bring a fresh perspective to a topic.  I have worked in the sex education field for over 15 years and this topic is what I know best but I'm sure that the same basic process can be applied to many different subjects. I am going to share the process I went through creating " See I...
Post a Comment
Read more