Daily HealthBeat Tip

A date with danger

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Date violence's dangers continue after the violence. A study finds sexually transmitted disease is about three times more common among teen-age girls who were victims of date violence than among girls who were not victimized.

Michele Decker of the Harvard School of Public Health found the link using data from a surveillance system administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her findings are in the journal Pediatrics.

Decker says abusive males are more likely to carry disease � which makes infection more likely for the victims, who may not have control over sex:

"They're not able to determine when and how � and with what protection � sex with these partners is occurring." (five seconds)

Decker says girls can seek help from battered women's programs. But she says the best approach is prevention � making sure boys know sexual violence is wrong.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 24, 2005

The White House | USA.gov | Helping America's Youth | HHS Archive