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Using condoms correctly all the time
reduces the risk of infection with sexually transmitted infections (STIs),
including gonorrhea and chlamydia, by 60%, US researchers have shown.
Promoting condom use is a mainstay
of HIV prevention and sexual health campaigns. It is well known that their use can
prevent pregnancy and the transmission of HIV and other STIs such as gonorrhea
and herpes.
However, their impact on the risk of
acquiring an STI is less certain, as research often doesn't look at whether condoms
are used correctly.
US doctors undertook a study
involving over 900 people, recruited from sexual health clinics. The
participants had a sexual health check-up when they entered the study and again
after three and six months. The researchers wanted to see if
condom use reduced the risk of acquiring three common bacterial STIs: gonorrhea,
chlamydia and trichomonas.
The study participants recorded
electronically all instances of penile-vaginal sex. They reported over 14,000 instances
of sex. Condoms were used 64% of the time. But a quarter of the time, sex with
a condom involved a problem, such as slippage or breakage.
Approximately 8.5% of people who
didn’t use condoms all the time were diagnosed with an STI. This compared to a
rate of 7% in those who reported consistent condom use. This difference wasn’t
statistically significant. However, the rate of STIs among
people reporting both consistent and correct condom use was only 3.35%.
The researchers therefore calculated
that correct use of condoms all the time reduced the risk of STIs by almost 60%
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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