GAINESVILLE, FL — A new study by a University of Florida epidemiological team indicates having sex with partners who are much older or much younger can expose people to sexually transmitted diseases.As part of a study about ways to reduce STD transmission, UF epidemiology professor Stephanie Staras investigated the relationship between sexual partner selection and disease. Among the transmission factors her study discovered were obvious ones, like pre-existing conditions and number of previous partners. Other indicators included having spent time in jail and drug or alcohol abuse.

The most surprising indicator to emerge from the study was that people who have sex with partners who are five or more years older or younger are more likely to experience an STD.

“Partner selection is an area of STD prevention that could complement what we are already doing with promoting condom use, and could possibly really help people,” Staras told The Register. “If somehow we could convince individuals to incorporate this information in a meaningful way into their decision-making, then we could reduce STDs.”

According to Staras, for each of the indicators present in a sexual relationship, the chance of contracting an STD increases.

The Register noted, “Or in other words, having sex with dope-smoking, alcoholic, poxed jailbird philanderers outside your own age group is riskier than doing it unprotected.”

Staras’ research included surveys of people who were seen at STD clinics between 1999 and 2002. The resulting report, “Sexual Partner Characteristics and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Adolescents and Young Adults,” was published in Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the Journal of the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association.

Other epidemiologists and healthcare workers are now considering the revelation that condoms are only part of the answer to effective disease management.

“It’s all about the risk of the partner, and sometimes we forget that,” mused Richard A. Crosby, a professor at the University of Kentucky.