Young teens are more likely to have sexual intercourse if they spend more time in sedentary leisure activities, according to a recent study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Alcohol consumption might contribute to the link between sex and sedentary behavior, the authors added.
Researchers used the Global School-Based Study Health Survey (GSHS) to collect data on 34,674 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. The participants came from 19 countries across Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. All of the participants attended school. Their mean age was 13.8 years and just over half were girls.
The research team analyzed the students’ drug and alcohol use, physical activity (not including physical education classes at school), experiences with bullying, support from parents, loneliness, and depression symptoms.
To assess sedentary time, the adolescents were asked how much time they spent each day in activities like “sitting and watching television, playing computer games, talking with friends, or doing other sitting activities.” The time did not include time spent at school and time spent doing homework.
Overall, 12% of the participants had had sexual intercourse during the previous twelve months. About 27% of spent less than an hour in sedentary activities, while 5% reported eight or more hours of sedentary time. Thirty-six percent were sedentary for one to two hours daily.
However, the prevalence of intercourse increased with the amount of time spent in sedentary activities. About 10% of adolescents with less than an hour of sedentary time each day had had intercourse. For students with over eight hours of sedentary time, the rate rose to 18%. Results were especially strong in Guyana, Venezuela, and Kenya.
“A substantial proportion (21.2%) of this association was explained by alcohol use,” the authors wrote, noting that alcohol is “typically consumed while sitting.” They referred to previous research findings that linked alcohol use to risky sexual behaviors, such as having intercourse at a young age.
Several limitations were acknowledged. For example, it was not known what types of sexual activities the adolescents engaged in, and while the question about sex covered the previous 12 months, questions about alcohol use covered the previous 30 days. Therefore, sex and alcohol use might not have occurred at the same time. In addition, all of the participants were students, so it is not clear whether the findings would apply to adolescents who were not in school.
The researchers recommended that sedentary adolescents be cautioned about safe sex practices and the risks of early intercourse.
Resources
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Smith, Lee, PhD, et al.
“Leisure-Time Sedentary Behavior, Alcohol Consumption, and Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescents Aged 12-15 Years in 19 Countries From Africa, the Americas, and Asia”
(Full-text. Published online: July 24, 2019)
https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(19)31272-X/fulltext