Posts
The first survey for six years of
attitudes to HIV and sexual risk behavior among the general public in France
has found that young people are less frightened of AIDS than they used to be,
are more likely to believe in unlikely routes of HIV transmission, and are
strikingly less trustful that condoms will reliably protect them against HIV.
The study finds that almost everyone
knows about the most common ways HIV is transmitted, and that condoms as a
general anti-HIV and contraceptive strategy are still widely used, far more so
than the days before widespread public awareness of HIV.
However, it finds a considerable
decline, relative to earlier surveys, in the proportion of people who used
condoms the last time they had sex, especially in longer-term relationships.
Are changing beliefs about condoms
reflected in changes in use? The answer is yes, in some cases. Condom use at
first sex has remained steady, at 62% in men and 50% in women in 1994 and
almost exactly the same proportions now.
Before the public HIV campaign, a
quarter of men and half of women aged 20-29 reported “never” having used a
condom. Seven years later, in 1998, this was down to 3.7% of men and 7.4% of
women. Since then, figures have wobbled but, even so, in the last survey only
7.5% of men and 11% of women had never used a condom.
When it comes to condom use at last
sex, however, this has declined considerably since the 1990s. In 1998, the peak
year, 49% of men said they had used as condom last time they had sex while in
2010 it was 36% (a 27% decrease). In women, these proportions were 38% in 1998
and 24% in 2010 (a 37% decrease).
Condom use among higher-risk people
– namely those reporting two or more partners in the past year – has held up,
standing at 57% in men and 46% in women, with little change since 1994.
Condom use in longer-term
relationships, however, has decreased considerably; in relationships lasting
more than six months, last-time condom use has gone down from 60% in men and
53% in women to 41 and 33% where the partners do not live together.
Condom use where partners are
married or cohabiting has always been low, and indeed women scarcely report
condom use at all with cohabiting partners; in men, it has declined from 15 to
9%. Women also reported a decline since 2004, from 71 to 51%, in condom use
with partners known for less than six months, though this was not statistically
significant and not reflected in the figures for men (75% for 2004 and 72% for
2010).
Declines in condom use are, by and
large, not due to people switching to non-barrier contraception methods. While
more people are now using the ‘belt and braces’ approach of using both condoms
and ‘medical’ methods (hormonal, IUDs etc.), the proportion reporting using no
method of contraception has increased from 9.2 to 19% in men (statistically
significant) and 7 to 12% in women (not statistically significant).
The decline in condom use in
longer-term relationships and in particular the decline in their image as the
most important way to guard against HIV is striking, though: as the researchers
comment, young people may now be more concerned about pregnancy than HIV and
may perceive HIV as little worse than other sexually transmitted infections, so
condom use has slipped downwards in the hierarchy of sexual health measures.
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.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
