(July 2003)

Despite years of education campaigns encouraging safe sex, condom use among US adults has shown no increase in recent years, according to a new report. National survey data show that in 2000, only 20 percent of adults said they had used a condom the last time they had sex -- a figure unchanged since 1996. What's more, although people at higher-than-average risk of HIV were more likely than others to use condoms, nearly two-thirds (64%) didn't use them with their regular partners.

These individuals "therefore were placing their partners or themselves at risk for acquiring or transmitting HIV," according to Dr John E. Anderson of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. His findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

For the study, Anderson looked at data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative poll of American adults conducted regularly since 1972. Anderson focused on reports of condom use in the 1996, 1998 and 2000 surveys. He found that among the more than 5,700 sexually active adults interviewed, only one in five overall said they had used a condom the last time they had sex. And this rate held steady in each of the survey years. "The picture regarding condom use among adults in the United States is clear," Anderson writes. "No trend toward greater condom use is apparent in the 1996 to 2000 period."

Condom use was higher among adults without a regular partner compared with those in an ongoing relationship -- 43 percent, versus about 18 percent. Still, among respondents deemed most at risk for contracting or transmitting HIV -- due to drug use or sexual behaviour -- Anderson estimates that 64 percent were not using condoms with their regular sexual partner. The CDC researcher also found that among unmarried adults, 35 percent said they had used a condom the last time they had sex -- far short of health officials' goal of getting 50 percent of sexually active singles to use condoms by the year 2000.

The IHA leaflet 'Herpes: What it means for partners' advocates the use of condoms as the risk of transmitting the herpes virus may possibly be reduced if condoms are used. Couples should try to avoid sexual intercourse during an active episode of herpes, because this is when the virus is most likely to be transmitted. This period includes the time from when your partner first has warning signs of an outbreak, such as a tingling or burning in the genitals, until the last of the sores has healed. Also, sexual activity prolongs the healing of the episode.

Source: American Journal of Public Health 2003;93.