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New data is shows that more North Carolinians are being more risky in their sexual behaviors, according to the latest report by America’s Health Rankings (AHR).
As reported by WRAL, the state’s worst health score was for sexual behaviors. North Carolina was ranked 48th in high-risk HIV behaviors. The state has a 7.3% percentage for adults engaging in risky behaviors, well above the national average of 5.7%.
WakeMed OB/GYN Dr. Jenna Beckham says she was not surprised to learn of the new data. She also mentioned that while other states saw rates go down during the pandemic, NC didn’t change much.
We’ve definitely seen continued increases in a lot of our sexually-transmitted infections in North Carolina. Some have gone down very slightly over the most recent years, but overall we’re not really moving in a downward direction. Some things, like chlamydia, our rates of increase continue to outpace the rates of increase from nationwide data.
Beckham says that a lot of her patients are within the LGBTQ+ community. HIV does tend to have higher rates among the community, but Beckham said that other STDs like gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia “don’t seem to as significantly adversely impact that patient population.”
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