(CBC News) — There is no evidence that getting an HPV vaccination encourages teenage girls to engage in riskier sexual behaviour, according to a new study.
The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, used data from the B.C. Adolescent Health Survey, which collects health information every five years from B.C. students in grades 7 through 12. The study is based on responses from almost 300,000 female students provided in the years 2003, 2008 and 2013.
The HPV vaccine was made available in 2008 to girls in Grade 6 in B.C. schools, according to Elizabeth Saewyc, director of the school of nursing at the University of British Columbia and one of the study’s authors.
Saewyc said the study was done in part to address concerns that the vaccine gives girls the false sense that they can engage in riskier sexual behaviour. She found the opposite to be true. (…)