Express News Line reports:

The virginity pledgers invite more sexually transmitted disease risks than non pledgers.

The study, by Yale and Columbia University researchers after examining sexual behaviors of 11,400 adolescents found virginity pledges encouraging STD risks.

They found that many pledgers who claimed to be virgins were having premarital sex. Although a large number of adolescents avoided vaginal intercourse, they were more likely to have oral and anal sex without the use of condoms.

The team found the male pledgers 4 times more likely to engage in anal sex and both male and female pledgers 6 times more likely to have oral sex.

The study steered by Dr. Hannah Bruckner was published in Journal of Adolescent Health.