UK teens ignorant about condom use
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-08-10 09:03 LONDON - Even the few British teenagers who wear
condoms do not use them effectively, a study published on Thursday said.
The study said several of the teens admitted putting the condom on too late
or taking it off too early.
The three most common reasons for condom use were to prevent pregnancy, avoid
making a mess and prolonging sex -- avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was
barely mentioned.
Of the 1,400 teens in the study, 373 said they had used a condom in their
most recent sexual experience. Six percent said they put the condom on after
vaginal penetration and an equal number said they continued penetrative sex
after removing it.
"There was an element of ignorance of how they are supposed to be used,"
Nicole Stone of the Centre for Sexual Health Research at Southampton University
in southern England told Reuters. "We need to correct that."
The study, published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, was
prompted by the anomaly that while teenage pregnancies are falling, rates of
sexually transmitted disease are rising.
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