What do clients of a young people's sexual health service recall about their sex education programme at school?

Objectives: To assess young people's recall of school-based sexual health education.

Methods: Clients attending The Place, an open-access sexual health service for young people, were asked to recall whether they had received teaching on key areas of sex education outlined in the Scottish Executive's draft Sexual Health and Relationship Strategy and Greater Glasgow NHS Board's guidelines for sex education in schools.Their responses were analyzed by age, sex, and type of school attended.

Results: Although most could remember receiving some teaching about risks of sexual activity, there was little recall of teaching in positive areas of sexual health, such as having good relationships, rights and responsibilities, and being good parents.

Conclusions: Further research is needed to establish why recall of taught sex education is low in this group of clients, and how to improve retention of important sexual education information.