A New Report On Teen Condom Use

About 28% of U.S. girls and women ages 15 to 19 who have had sex within the last year said they always used a condom, compared with 47% of sexually active boys and men of the same age group, according to a study to be released Monday by the research organization Child Trends, USA Today reports. For the report, Kerry Franzetta and colleagues at Child Trends examined CDC survey data collected in 2002 that focused on the 46% of U.S. teens who said they had had sexual intercourse. The report finds about 36% of Hispanic girls used contraception during their both their first sex and their most recent sex, compared with 57% of blacks and 72% of whites. "Condom use declines a little with age, and people in more serious relationships are less likely to use condoms," co-author Jennifer Manlove said, adding, "At first sexual intercourse, folks are more likely to use condoms for pregnancy and disease prevention, but as they are more sexually experienced, they are more likely to switch to other methods of birth control." Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, said that teens can "dramatically increase the effectiveness" of pregnancy prevention, as well as prevent sexually transmitted infections, if they use a condom and a hormonal contraceptive, such as birth control pills. According to Franzetta, the U.S. teen birth rate in 2004 was 41.2 births per 1,000 girls, compared with 61.8 births per 1,000 in 1991, a decrease possibly related to teen pregnancy prevention programs.