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Amongst people in their 30s and 40s, and in partnerships where there is an age difference of five or more years, condom use is particularly low.
Nearly 70 percent of those aged between 16 and 19 used a condom with a new partner, compared to 38 percent of men and 29 percent of women aged between 35 and 44, a new study has shown.
This worrying news comes as the number of people diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) was shown to have risen by a quarter in just five years, and has sparked calls for an urgent drive to promote condoms to all age groups, and not just young people.
The researchers also found that where there was an age difference between partners of five years or more (regardless of whether the man or woman was older), 44.1% of respondents reported using condoms at first sex, compared to 60.8% in partnerships that were closer in age.
The figures, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, showed that although the overall number of heterosexual people using condoms for first time sex stood at 55 percent, that figures declined with age.
Author, Dr Catherine Mercer, a lecturer at the Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research, University College London, said:
Our finding that condom use at first sex declined with increasing age is of concern.
Although a disproportionate amount of partnerships are formed among people in their teens and 20s, the fact is that about 45 percent of marriages are now expected to end in divorce, which means that the ‘population attributable risk’ by those in their 30s and 40s will increase.
Increasing rates of STIs diagnosed among those in their 30s and 40s suggest that interventions that promote consistent condom use with new partners are urgently required.
Not just for young people as has been the focus recently, but for people in their 30s and 40s and older who are increasingly forming new partnerships.
Commenting on her age difference findings, Dr Mercer said:
This may reflect unequal power relations, so that younger people in such partnerships may not have the necessary communication and negotiation skills to ensure safe sex with older partners. This finding may have implications for sex and relationship education and counselling. Improving negotiation skills for women and men may facilitate communication and, in turn, increase the likelihood of condom use in such partnerships.
The researchers analysed the responses of 11,161 people (of whom 6,399 were women), who were interviewed about the last 12 months of their heterosexual relationships, for the second British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal 2).
Participants were asked about their three most recent partnerships and questioned about condom use, age differences in the relationship, where they met and how soon after meeting they had sex.
Of the 11,161 respondents, 9,598 reported a total of 15,488 heterosexual partnerships in the past year. A higher proportion of men’s partnerships were described as “not regular” – 39.1% compared to 20% of women’s partnerships; while a higher proportion of women’s partnerships were marriages or cohabitations – 55.2% versus 38.9% of men’s partnerships.
Men reported having sex sooner after first meeting a partner than women, with one in five men reporting sex within 24 hours of meeting their partner, compared with just one in 10 women.
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