Health Department Reacts to Study Ranking Natural State in Sexual Health
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: January 28, 2013
Arkansas' overall sexual health receives a bad ranking from a new study.
The Natural State is near the very bottom of the list at number 48 in the country.
The study took a look at a number of different factors to determine Arkansas' overall sexual health, from the number of people who are raped, to the number of people who contract STD's like AIDS and Gonorrhea, even the number of women getting cervical cancer.
But here's we really took a nose dive in the numbers: Arkansas ranks very near the bottom in terms of teen pregnancy.
They define that as the number of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 who give birth.
According to the study, 52 out of every 1,000 girls in that age group will get pregnant in Arkansas.
Only Mississippi and New Mexico had higher teen birth rates.
Doctors at the Arkansas Department of Health say they're not surprised by this study, but still very concerned.
"Teen moms are less likely to complete high school, more likely to end up in low paying jobs, more likely to be reliant on their parents or society," said Dr. Bradley Planey with the Department of Health.
Doctor Planey says the kids of teen moms are at risk for a lot of health problems too and are more likely to become incarcerated or get pregnant themselves.
They say they are working to reverse the problem, they've reduced the teen pregnancy rate in the last decade but not as quickly as many other states.
The Natural State is near the very bottom of the list at number 48 in the country.
The study took a look at a number of different factors to determine Arkansas' overall sexual health, from the number of people who are raped, to the number of people who contract STD's like AIDS and Gonorrhea, even the number of women getting cervical cancer.
But here's we really took a nose dive in the numbers: Arkansas ranks very near the bottom in terms of teen pregnancy.
They define that as the number of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 who give birth.
According to the study, 52 out of every 1,000 girls in that age group will get pregnant in Arkansas.
Only Mississippi and New Mexico had higher teen birth rates.
Doctors at the Arkansas Department of Health say they're not surprised by this study, but still very concerned.
"Teen moms are less likely to complete high school, more likely to end up in low paying jobs, more likely to be reliant on their parents or society," said Dr. Bradley Planey with the Department of Health.
Doctor Planey says the kids of teen moms are at risk for a lot of health problems too and are more likely to become incarcerated or get pregnant themselves.
They say they are working to reverse the problem, they've reduced the teen pregnancy rate in the last decade but not as quickly as many other states.
