CRAFFT Allows Doctors to Screen Patients for Sexually Risky Behavior

The abuse of drugs and/or alcohol has sent many a person spiraling downwards in terms of money, status, sanity and personality. In the hands of teenagers, the use of drugs and alcohol often leads additionally to extremely risky sexual behavior. This type of behavior has been known to lead to unintended pregnancies, overdoses of drugs, alcohol poisonings and the contracting of various sexually transmitted infections. Despite this link, less than 50% of pediatricians actually screen their patients for risky sexual activities and/or the use of substances like alcohol and drugs; however, this could soon change with a diagnostic test currently being used at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. This test, called CRAFFT, affords pediatricians the opportunity to screen their patients for substance (alcohol or drugs) use within a few minutes.

In a recent study, researchers have discovered that by administering this CRAFFT test to youngsters, they can identify those teenagers that are at high risk of participating in sexual activities that are deemed risky. Results from this recent research have shown that those teenagers who had positive screenings for either drug use or alcohol use also have a higher chance of participating in sexual activity after drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Examples of risky sexual behavior include having many sexual partners and having sex with the use of protection like condoms; because of this, these high-risk teenagers were more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection.

There were over 3o0 participants in this research ranging in ages from 12 to 18 years old across three different urban clinics. These participants answered a questionnaire that focused on risky sexual activities in addition to answering questions established by CRAFFT. It was found that if a teenager tested positive for substance/alcohol abuse, they were over 40% more likely to have unprotected sex. This usually occurred in over 26% of the cases after a participant consumed alcohol, under 16% of the cases in which the participant took drugs and over 21% of the cases in which the participant’s partner was consuming alcohol.

The CRAFFT questionnaire was created by the Children’s Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research and contains questions like, “Do you ever forget things you did while using alcohol or drugs?” and “Do you ever use alcohol or drugs to relax, feel better about yourself, or fit in?” If a participants answered yes to two or more of these questions, it was considered a high risk of that person having a drug or alcohol disorder and, thus, a high risk in terms of sexual activities. Sharon Levy, a co-author of the study, states, “Primary care physicians are on the frontline of identifying adolescents who are at-risk and all should be screened with questions like these at every routine medical visit. Clinicians should be prepared to discuss high risk sexual behaviors with their patients along with the dangers of engaging in sexual activity while intoxicated. Something as simple as asking an adolescent a few questions during a clinical appointment might make the difference.”