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Spotlights the body of work with regard to the sociology of AIDS showing how this has grown over the last two decades of the twentieth century. Indicates that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are affected by patterns of sexual behaviour along with drug related practices. Cites the vulnerability of low socio‐economic groups to STIs, with the use of an explanatory figure with lots of detail within it. Summarizes that health research on inequality, particularly with regard to HIV and STIs would assist greatly in determining the relevant factors.

This study investigates the relationship between being formerly incarcerated and the sexual health of African American and White men. It uses data from the 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth to compare the likelihoods of reporting sexually transmitted disease among African American and White men who were formerly incarcerated with those who were never incarcerated. The results show that having been incarcerated increases the likelihood of having sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for both African American men and White men. The results also reveal that, when controlling for sociodemographic and sexual network differences, White men maintain lower infection rates than do comparable African American men regardless of their former incarceration statuses. When several factors are taken into account, the likelihood of infections for African American men who have never been incarcerated are higher than those of White men who have been incarcerated. Racial disadvantage is a key determinant of disparities in STIs between formerly incarcerated White males and never incarcerated African American males. The implications of these results are discussed.

This study aims to analyze the trends for crime and STDs after the passage of massage therapist licensing. In 1977, Texas passed a law permitting county-level licensing laws for massage therapists, which was soon followed by a statewide licensing requirement in 1985. This early massage therapy law was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Massage therapy licensing is commonly associated with preventing crime, specifically prostitution. However, massage parlors also represent an opportunity for entrepreneurs starting businesses, who face significant barriers to entry across the USA.

The authors analyze the effect of state- and city-level licensing of massage therapists on crime and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases using data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports from 1985–2013 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1993-2015.

The authors find that state- and city-level licensing of massage therapists was not associated with preventing crimes related to prostitution or reducing sexually transmitted diseases. This analysis is consistent with the hypothesis that relaxing the stringency of massage therapist licensing would not lead to increases in crime or additional spread of disease while likely encouraging entrepreneurship.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of city-level licensing on health and safety of consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the quality of online information about sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and determine which web sites are suitable for patients to read.

This study evaluated the integrity, accessibility, readability, reliability, and completeness of 75 web sites providing information on one of five different types of STD. The Google AdWords Keywords Tool was used to determine the five most frequently searched STD terms: HIV, herpes, chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea. These five terms were then subjected to a Google search, and the first 15 web sites found for each term were evaluated. The web sites were assessed for integrity on the basis of a defined integrity score, accessibility on the basis of three levels of conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, readability on the basis of the Flesch Reading Ease score and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level, reliability on the basis of the LIDA instrument, and completeness on the basis of the quality appraisal instruments developed by the authors.

The results suggested that the quality of information available on different web sites is inconsistent, and the information maintained by government web sites is most appropriate for general public users in terms of integrity, accessibility, readability, reliability, and completeness.

There are currently no studies analysing the quality of online information about STDs.

Chlamydia is currently the most frequently notified infectious disease in New South Wales (NSW). Published articles relating to chlamydia prevalence in Australian prison settings are sparse, but studies from the United Kingdom and the United States indicate relatively high chlamydia prevalence among young incarcerated individuals. This article reports on findings from an enhanced chlamydia surveillance programme in NSW prisons between 2005 and 2007. The authors report a relatively low chlamydia prevalence among the general population of NSW prisoners (compared with figures from the United Kingdom and United States), which by the end of 2007 was 4%. The average crude chlamydia notification rate for the NSW prison population during the review period was about four times that of the general NSW community ‐ 716/100,000 during the review period compared with 175/100,000 in the NSW general community. The average crude chlamydia notification rate for Aboriginal prisoners during the review period was 1262/100,000, compared with 1470/100,000 in the general Australian Aboriginal population. The authors grapple with the dilemma of expanding chlamydia screening and treatment services for the sexual health benefits of prison populations with static prison health budgets on one hand, and limited evidence of cost‐effectiveness of such an expensive intervention on the other.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can be transferred from one person to another through sexual contact. STIs lead to substantial morbidity and mortality and affect many different aspects of human life, including quality of life, sexual health, reproductive health and even the health of newborns and children. Despite of high rates of STIs in prisons, there are not sufficient screening, prevention and treatment programs to control STIs transmission among prisoners in Iran. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of STIs among incarcerated women in Iran for the first time, using the active case finding strategy.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 438 incarcerated women in a prison in Tehran, Iran, from 2017 to 2018. A total of 438 prisoners were screened by active case findings for STI symptoms, then evaluated by complete genital and anal examination, followed by molecular testing.

A total of 189 (43.2%) prisoners announced vaginal discharge, while 194 (44.3%) individuals had vaginal discharge in the genital examination. In the cervical examination, 137 individuals (31.3%) had abnormal findings, of which 83 (18.9%) individuals had cervicitis, 40 (9.1%) individuals had cervical erosion, 38 (8.7%) individuals had cervical prolapse and 17 (3.9%) individuals had bleeding originated from the cervix.

This study showed that it is possible to set up a system in which the diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of prisoners with STIs can be actively performed. Educating prisoners about signs and symptoms, risk behaviors and prevention routes of STIs, as much as regular screening of prisoners, and adequate treatment can help control the STIs prevalence among prisoners and in the general population.

Incarceration provides an opportunity for screening and treatment of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) in high-risk groups. The purpose of this paper is to determine positivity rates of STBBI screening within correctional facilities using opt-in strategies and estimate the proportion of admissions tested.

A cross-sectional, retrospective review of testing data from January 2012 to August 2015 from three provincial correctional facilities located in Alberta, Canada was completed. Analysis variables included STBBI, gender, facility, collection year and age. STBBI-stratified analysis was performed to identify correlates for positivity using univariate and logistic regressions.

Overall prevalence of chlamydia was 11.2 percent and gonorrhea was 3.5 percent; correlates for both were younger age and facility type. The syphilis prevalence rate was 3.2 percent; correlates included being female, older age, adult facilities, with later years being protective. In total, 14 (0.3 percent) newly diagnosed HIV cases were found, prevalence increased with age. HBV prevalence was 1.7 percent with no significant correlations. Nearly one-tenth (n=422) of those screened for HCV antibody were positive; all variables were significantly correlated. Overall estimates of the proportion of admissions tested by STBBI were low and ranged from 4.8 to 16.1 percent.

This study found high rates of STBBI in correctional facilities and showed that only a small proportion of the population was tested using an opt-in strategy. Shifting to an “opt-out” strategy may be warranted.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how parents and caregivers describe their concerns about the HPV vaccine for their children on open Internet websites. The study examines what the discourse among parents reveals about their concerns regarding the HPV vaccine.

Our exploratory study utilized a grounded theory approach as a method of collecting data and simultaneously formulating research questions based on emerging themes from the data. We used purposeful sampling to select sets of comments posted on websites that provided news, scientific information, or parental support regarding HPV and its vaccine.

Findings suggest support for Bond and Nolan’s (2011) theory that familiarity with a disease is central to parents’ assessment of risk, and that dread of a serious disease such as cervical cancer is weaker than dread of unknown possible side effects in parents’ motivation to give or withhold the vaccine for their children.

Research limitations include our usage of a purposeful convenience sample of websites. The limitation of this sampling technique is that the comments made by website “users” and used in the analysis may not be representative of the wider population, and may include Americans as well as non-Americans.

Our research fills an important gap in the literature by looking at the ways in which parents share their concerns about the HPV vaccine on Internet websites as they consider whether to reject, delay, or consent to the vaccine.

The purpose of this paper is to study in detail what kind of role alcohol has among a selected group of sexually active teenage girls, with special emphasis on their locus of control and risky sexual behaviour.

The data comprise the narratives of 87 girls regarding their experience with sexually motivating situations that involved alcohol. The narratives were analysed with a categorical‐content mode of reading.

Narratives belonging to the category ”Everything under control” involved self‐directed girls with strong self‐control who remained in control of the sexually motivated situation despite their drunkenness. “Let it go” narratives were characterised by outwardly directed girls with weak self‐control, irrespective of alcohol use. The effect of alcohol was most noticeable in “I both wanted and didn't want” narratives by girls who had shaky and situation‐dependent self‐control. Their ability to control a sexually motivated situation was unstable and considerably affected by alcohol use.

Alcohol use should be taken into account in sex education and vice versa. Sexual issues should be brought up in education concerning substance use. Young girls should be taught to recognise their own feelings and to consider beforehand what they want from their dating relationships. Role playing can be a useful tool in learning how to better handle sexually motivated situations. A feeling of regret can be utilised in health education both in providing knowledge and as a motivation for behavioural reform.

This study provides sophisticated information for comprehension of the conflicting results of earlier surveys, and it suggests that the association between alcohol use and sexual behaviour is affected by the type of self‐control tendency that girls possess.