Consistent Condom Use Is Rare Among Never-Married American Women, 1988 Survey Shows

Nationally representatives data from Cycle IV of the 1988 National Survey of Family Growth were examined to detect patterns of condom use among never-married American women. Four measures of use were: whether the respondent had used condoms in any month in the four years preceding the survey; whether she had used them consistently; whether she stopped using condoms; and whether she initiated consistent condom use. Multivariate logistic regression analyses used the variables of age race or ethnicity years of education poverty level number of sexual partners perceived chance of getting AIDS and knowledge of AIDS main reason for using condoms and frequency of intercourse. Among the 1887 sexually active women aged 15-49 41% had used condoms in at least one month during the reference period while 13% had used them in every month over the period. Overall 32% of condom users used the method consistently. In addition 45% of users said they had stopped using condoms at some point and 26% of women who were not using condoms at the start of the study period later initiated consistent use probably owing to an increased awareness of the human immunodeficiency virus and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Ever-users who were significantly more likely (p < .05) to report consistent use were women older than age 30 (46%) White and Hispanic women (33% of each) those who had sex once a week or less (35%) and those who said they were using condoms to avoid STDs (42%). Blacks 20-24 year olds women who had sex frequently and those who were not necessarily using condoms for disease prevention were significantly less likely to be consistent users. Among women who stopped use there were also statistically significant differences: 54% of women who did not specify condom use for disease prevention stopped use vs. 34% of those who did and women who had sex more than once a week were more likely than those who had sex once a week to stop use (55% vs. 41%).