However, they say more needs to be done to target young people from affluent areas, where rates of unprotected sex are on the rise.
An independent evaluation of the strategy by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked more than 9,000 young people aged between 13 and 21, as well as analysing data on teenage pregnancy.
They found the conception rate in under 18-year-olds in England had fallen by nine per cent between 1998 and 2002. This compares to a reduction of 2.5 per cent in the preceding five-year period and a mostly static level in the previous two decades.
Researchers found the more sex education lessons young women received, the less likely they were to fall pregnant before the age of 18.
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