Reducing Teenage Pregnancies & STDs: Sexual Health in UK Report

This report provides a systematic review of the importance of sexual health promotion in the UK, aiming to reduce teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The report highlights the current state of sexual health in the UK, including the prevalence of HIV, unplanned pregnancies, and teenage pregnancies, supported by data from various health organizations. It explores the need for promoting sexual health, emphasizing the importance of providing information on contraception and increasing access to services. The report also discusses the methods used for data extraction, literature search strategies, and the philosophical approach adopted. The findings underscore the urgent need for strategic planning and effective interventions to address sexual health issues, including the development of comprehensive programs and policies to increase awareness and promote healthy behaviors among teenagers and the general population. The conclusion emphasizes the critical need for promoting sexual health to reduce mortality rates associated with teenage pregnancies and STDs.

Promoting Sexual Health
ABSTRACT
TITLE:
[To understand the importance of sexual health promotion in reducing teenage
pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in UK]
BACKGROUND:
[Promotion of sexual health in UK is necessary because it will help in reducing the risk of
sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies to a high extent. Sexual health is
also associated with broad range of health issues which are very important to be
addressed. Hence, it is necessary to encourage service uptakes in promoting sexual
health so that emotional, mental and physical health of all individuals can be restored.
According to survey conducted by health organisation, it has been stated that UK has
maximum number of teenage pregnancies which has also increased the number of
individuals suffering from sexually transmitted disease]
OBJECTIVE:
• [To understand the concept of sexual health promotion.
• To determine the major role of sexual health promotion for reducing teenage
pregnancies in UK.
• To critically analyse the role of sexual health promotion for reducing sexually
transmitted diseases in UK.
• To suggest different methods to promote sexual health among teenagers in UK.]
METHODS:
[SR Protocol, quality assessment strategies, positivism philosophy, data extraction strategy]
RESULTS:
[From the systematic review of various articles, it can be stated that it is necessary to
reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and
conception rate in between the age group of 16- 18 years. According to the article stated
by Eldredge and et.al., (2016), it is become important to support and facilitate national
and local partners in UK so that they will be able to deliver increased HIV testing in areas
and communities where the prevalence of HIV is more than 0.5%]
CONCLUSIONS:
[The overall dissertation is based on promoting sexual health in UK. Based on the overall
dissertation, it can be concluded that there is urgent need of promoting sexual health
because there has been increased number of teenage pregnancies, unplanned
pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease which have increased the mortality rate in
UK].
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METHODS
 [SR Protocol]
[Systematic review protocol provides basic guidelines so that all the aspects of dissertation get
completed in a successful manner. This is helpful because it provides transparency for
developing various methods]
 [Literature search strategy]
[To obtain overall credibility of literature review, well defined literature strategy has been used.
This will help in ensuring a more focussed research towards the completion of dissertation .
After developing research questions, the next task is to select relevant articles which can help
in systematic review of the studies]
 [Quality assessment strategies]
[Boolean operators have been used by researcher at the time of searching articles for the
completion of dissertation . Different Boolean operators as well as simple words such as AND,
OR, NOT and ANDNOT, etc. were used so that relevant articles can be selected].
 [Positivism philosophy]
 [In this ongoing dissertation, author has chosen positivism philosophy because the
dissertation has mainly focused on objective aspect rather than considering the
subjective matter of research. This has helped in meeting the objectives and aim of
study successfully]
 [Data extraction strategy]
 [Data extraction strategy can be broadly defined as the method through which data
about promoting sexual health and reducing rate of teenage pregnancies can be
retrieved. It is helpful in resolving issues related to data extraction from various
unstructured sources. For successful extraction, author has used inclusion and
exclusion criteria so that various articles can be searched for conducting systematic
review]
RESULTS
• From the systematic review of various articles, it can be stated that
it is necessary to reduce the burden of sexually transmitted
diseases, unplanned pregnancies and conception rate in between
the age group of 16- 18 years. According to the article stated by
Eldredge and et.al., (2016), it is become important to support and
facilitate national and local partners in UK so that they will be
able to deliver increased HIV testing in areas and communities
where the prevalence of HIV is more than 0.5%.
• On the other hand, according to the survey conducted by World
Health Organisation, it was reported that in 2014, more than 6500
people in UK were diagnosed with HIV infection and more than
90,000 individuals were already living with HIV accessed care
(Nguyen and et.al., 2013). This percentage has been increased by
5% from the previous year
• Another issue which has been present in UK is increased rate of
unplanned and teenage pregnancies. According to national survey
conducted for women, it was reported that 57% females in the age
group of 16-44 years had unplanned pregnancies and majority of
them resulted in medical termination.
• It has accounted for more than 45% of pregnancies in 2015. This
percentage has increased by 7% in 2015 as compared to 2013.
Further, it is also stated that the most unplanned pregnancies take
place in females who are under the age group of 20-34 years
• To provide access to information, local authorities and faculties
of sexual and reproductive health state have adopted the strategy
of providing contraception tablets to individuals, both from GP
services and alternative specialist provider
CONCLUSION
 [The overall dissertation is based on promoting sexual health in UK. Based on the overall
dissertation, it can be concluded that there is urgent need of promoting sexual health because
there has been increased number of teenage pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies and sexually
transmitted disease which have increased the mortality rate in UK]
 [This part also discussed that more than 23% of the total population of UK has been suffering
from sexually transmitted disease due to unsafe sexual activities. Further, it also stated that as
teenagers indulge in sexual activities at an early age, this has resulted in increased number of
teenage pregnancies. To avoid these circumstances, they undertake the process of abortion or
termination of pregnancies which produces negative consequences on both the mother and her
child]
 [As youngsters and other individuals in UK have first intercourse at an early age, chances of
conceiving child increases by 45%. It was also included in the dissertation that conception age
in UK is in between 16-18 years which have increased various issues related to promotion of
sexual health]
RESULTS

• In order to encourage individuals for taking contraception, it is necessary for national
health services and other authorities to provide information about all these methods so
that they can choose one of the best methods which also include long acting reversible
contraception methods. Further, NHS England has also announced the assessment of
commissioning of maternity services. This review will help in assessing various care
provisions that are required to meet the changing needs of women and children
• Another major issue in UK that has declined sexual health is the increase in rate of
conception in between the age group of 16-18 years. Teenagers have the highest rate
of unplanned pregnancies which have a negative outcome on their mental, physical
and emotional well-being.Teenage mothers and young fathers, they are not able to
treat their child properly due to lack of knowledge and lack of financial resources to
fulfil their demands. Although, conception rate under the age group of 18 years
declined in the starting of 20th century but, later it increased to 33% by the end of year
2015
• Teenage pregnancies also result in low birth rate which is followed by asphyxia and
long term complications. Further, girls who give birth to children in their teenage
years are likely to suffer with postnatal depression which can last up to 3 years after
the birth of child. They are less likely to attain complete education which can result in
various consequences such as adult poverty and unemployment
• Poverty, disengagement from school and poor academic progress are the factors that
are associated with pregnancy before the age of 18 years. However, it has also been
noticed that majority of conceptions that are before the age of 18 are without any
specific risk factors related to mental, physical and emotional health of a person.
Based on the survey, it was concluded that teenage pregnancies are often associated
with consumption of alcohol and it later on increases the likelihood of sex at a very
young age. These are the reasons which lead to teenage pregnancies in UK.
• For promoting sexual health in UK, it is important to develop an effective strategic
planning so that they will be able to address various issues related to sexual health. As
there are many local and national health authorities in UK, it is essential for the
government of UK to assign various tasks to all authorities so that they would be able
to promote sexual health in a better way
• Hence, it is significant to provide them proper knowledge so that their awareness
about promoting sexual health will be increased. This will also help them in
maintaining proper mental, physical and sexual health in later stages of life. It is also
important to prioritise prevention so that infection would not spread. Although,
sexually transmitted diseases are not contagious and do not spread from one person to
another through physical contact, but, it is necessary to be careful so that infection
would not reach at the stage of severity