Youth attending Cape Peninsula day hospitals. Sexual behaviour and missed opportunities for contraception counselling.

Questionnaires were completed by a sample of youth (aged 15-24 years) attending day hospitals in the Cape Peninsula. Of the total sample of 225, 73.3% indicated that they had experienced sexual intercourse; of these, 27.3% had had 2 or more partners in the previous year, and on their last coital episode 91.0% had known their partner for more than 7 days and 52.8% had used some form of contraception. The criteria of a strict definition of missed opportunity for contraception intervention were fulfilled by 7.6% of the total sample, while 43.6% of those who had experienced sexual intercourse and 43.9% of those who had not did not receive contraception intervention but would have liked to have done so. Those who had had more than one partner in the previous year were more likely to have satisfied the strict definition of missed opportunity, while of those who had not had sexual intercourse, younger respondents and students were more likely not to have received contraception intervention despite wanting such intervention. It is concluded that all youth attending day hospitals should routinely be offered contraception counselling and that the issue of sexually transmitted diseases should be addressed simultaneously.