New study highlights sexual behavior and condom use in the U.S. among individuals ages 14 to 94
Findings from the largest nationally representative study of sexual and sexual-health behaviors ever fielded, conducted by Indiana University sexual health researchers, provides an updated and much needed snapshot of contemporary Americans’ sexual behaviors, including a description of more than 40 combinations of sexual acts that people perform during sexual events, patterns of condom use by adolescents and adults, and the percentage of Americans participating in same-sex encounters.
The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) was conducted by researchers from the Center for Sexual Health Promotion (CSHP) in Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (HPER).
The NSSHB is one of the most comprehensive studies on these topics in almost two decades and documents the sexual experiences and condom-use behaviors of 5,865 adolescents and adults ages 14 to 94.
Initial findings from the survey, presented in nine separate research articles, were published on Oct. 1 in a special issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, a leading peer-reviewed journal in the area of urology and sexual health. The issue also includes commentaries offering perspectives on the study from leading U.S. sexual health authorities, including former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Lynn Barclay, President and CEO of the American Social Health Association.
“This survey is one of the most expansive nationally representative studies of sexual behavior and condom use ever conducted, given the 80-year span of ages,” said Michael Reece, director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion. “These data about sexual behaviors and condom use in contemporary America are critically needed by medical and public health professionals who are on the front lines addressing issues such as HIV, sexually transmissible infections and unintended pregnancy.”
According to the study’s findings, one of four acts of vaginal intercourse are condom protected in the U.S. (one in three among singles).
Condom Knowledge and Use
- While knowledge of condoms is high, less than one-half of men and women reported that condoms protect against HIV.
- Overall very few women and only about one-in-five men used a condom during their last sexual encounter.
- Condom use is highest among younger women, women with more education, never married women and women living in urban areas, particularly in Nairobi. Condom use is rare among married women, women with no formal education, and women living in rural areas.
- Male condom users are more likely to be younger, have some formal education, and be nonmarried. Men in rural areas are just as likely to use condoms as those in urban areas.
- Men and women who report multiple sexual partners, payment for sex, or having had an STD were much more likely to use a condom than respondents who did not report these practices.
- Less than one-half of non-married men used a condom with regular and non-regular partners at last sex, and just over one-half used a condom if it was sex for payment.
- Between 1993 and 1998 there were significant increases in knowledge and use of condoms for both men and women.
- Knowledge of where to buy a condom was significantly associated with condom use, particularly for men.
“These data, when compared to other studies in the recent past, suggest that although condom use has increased among some groups, efforts to promote the use of condoms to sexually active individuals should remain a public health priority,” Reece said.
Researchers believe the findings will be of interest to the general public, as well as to health professionals.
“People are often curious about others’ sex lives,” said Debby Herbenick, associate director of the CSHP. “They want to know how often men and women in different age groups have sex, the types of sex they engage in, and whether they are enjoying it or experiencing sexual difficulties. Our data provide answers to these common sex questions and demonstrate how sex has changed in the nearly 20 years since the last study of its kind.”
Condom Use Is Highest for Young, Study Finds
A wide-ranging study of Americans’ sexual behavior, based on the largest nationally representative survey since 1992, finds that condom use is becoming the norm for sexually active teenagers.
Indeed, they are more responsible than adults about using condoms, the researchers report in a study coming out on Monday. A vast majority of sexually active 14- to 17-year-olds - 80 percent of boys and 69 percent of girls — said they had used a condom the last time they had intercourse, compared with well under half of adults involved in casual liaisons.
“I think that just as teenagers quickly develop an expectation that they’re going to learn to drive no matter where they live,” said a co-author of the survey, Dr. J. Dennis Fortenberry, a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, “there’s the same general widespread sense among contemporary teenagers that as you get to the point where you start thinking about having sex, condoms are going to be part of that decision.”
The new study, the first to include participants as young as 14 and as old as 94, finds that decades after the sexual revolution, the gap between men’s and women’s sexual satisfaction persists.
While most men said they had experienced orgasm the last time they had sex, and 85 percent believed their partner had also, only two-thirds of the women surveyed said they had achieved orgasm the last time they had sex. And a startling number of women - almost one-third - said they had experienced pain the last time they had sex (only 5 percent of men did).
The report is drawn from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, carried out by researchers at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University. It was based on responses from 5,865 individuals, including about 800 under 18.
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By RONI CARYN RABIN