We can often take basic medical care like sexual health services for granted. In the UK, our sexual health services are provided to us for free without us really having to think about it. But this isn’t the case all over the world, and in fact, some places that you might think would be completely in control of sexual health services, in reality are struggling to provide good care for everyone.
This was highlighted by a recent study based on in-depth interviews with Latino men who live in western Oregon. The study showed that these men need a greater number of sexual health services which are actually designed for their needs, including more male health providers, more convenient clinic hours, and Spanish-speaking doctors. You might have thought that in a multicultural and advanced place like America these sorts of things wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems that they really are.
The results were published in the American Journal of Men’s Health. A team of researchers at Oregon State University conducted interviews with a number of young Latino men from rural backgrounds and asked them questions relating to their sexual health and how they use sexual health services.
It has been shown that Latinos in the United States experience disproportionately high rates of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections STIs and HIV. These sexual health disparities have the potential to grow especially if the sexual health services are not improved for them. Latinos continue to be the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States.
The research team interviewed 49 Latino men who have immigrated to the United States in the last ten years. The average age in the study was 24. The majority of the men came from rural areas of Mexico.
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