From the *Department of Sociology, NYU, New York, NY; †WI-HER LLC Women Influencing Health, Education, and Rule of Law, Vienna, VA; ‡Tri-County Health Department, Greenwood Village, CO; §Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL; ¶American Sexual Health Association, Research Triangle Park, NC; ∥University of Arkansas School of Medicine, Little Rock, AR; **The Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; and ††Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN.
Sex Transm Dis. 2017 Oct;44(10):579-585. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000000660.
Sexual health is considered to be a state of wellness with physical, emotional, mental, and social dimensions. Sexual health can contribute to our overall well-being in each of these dimensions. However, despite the intrinsic importance and positive aspects of sexuality in our lives, the United States presently faces significant challenges related to the sexual health of its citizens, including human immunodeficiency virus, other sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, unintended pregnancies, sexual violence, sexual dysfunction, and cancers in reproductive tracts with serious disparities among the populations affected. In particular, high rates of poverty, income inequality, low educational attainment, stigma, racism, sexism, and homophobia can make it more difficult for some individuals and communities to protect their sexual health. Given that many pressing public health issues in the United States are related to sexual health and that sexual health has been increasingly recognized as an important national health priority, now is the time to energize and focus our efforts toward optimal sexual health of the population. In this paper, we outline the rationale for addressing sexual health as a means to better promote overall health and address sexuality related morbidities. In addition, we present a logic model outlining an approach for advancing sexual health in the United States, as well as a range of action steps for consideration by public health practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.
性健康被认为是一种具有身体、情感、心理和社会维度的健康状态。性健康可以促进我们在这些维度上的整体健康。然而，尽管性在我们生活中具有内在的重要性和积极方面，但美国目前面临着与公民性健康相关的重大挑战，包括人类免疫缺陷病毒、其他性传播感染、病毒性肝炎、意外怀孕、性暴力、性功能障碍以及生殖系统癌症，而受影响的人群之间存在严重的差异。特别是，高贫困率、收入不平等、低教育程度、污名化、种族主义、性别歧视和恐同症可能使一些个人和社区更难以保护他们的性健康。鉴于美国许多紧迫的公共卫生问题都与性健康有关，并且性健康越来越被视为一个重要的国家健康优先事项，现在是时候激发和集中精力实现人口的最佳性健康了。在本文中，我们概述了将性健康作为改善整体健康和解决与性相关的发病率的一种手段的基本原理。此外，我们还提出了一个逻辑模型，概述了在美国推进性健康的方法，以及一系列供公共卫生从业者、研究人员和政策制定者考虑的行动步骤。
