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Study shows why young shun condoms
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LONDON (Reuters) - Social and cultural factors, not
just unavailability or ignorance, influence why young
people do not use condoms, researchers said on Friday.
Some sexually active under 25s associate condoms with
a lack of trust, while others believe carrying them
could imply sexual experience, which might be a plus
for men but not necessarily for women.
In a review of more than 250 studies of young people's
sexual behaviour, researchers at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discovered striking
similarities in what affects young sexual behaviour in
different countries.
"This study summarises key qualitative findings that
help in understanding young people's sexual behaviour
and why they might have unsafe sex," said Dr Cicely
Marston and Eleanor King in a study in The Lancet
medical journal.
They found that compared to men, women's sexual
freedom was universally restricted. Penalties for
transgression varied from verbal criticism to honour
killings, in which a woman who is thought to have
dishonoured her family is killed.
The studies, carried out between 1990-2004, showed
that young people assess a potential partner's disease
risk, and the need for a condom, by their appearance
and how well they know them socially.
Men were expected to be highly sexually active and
women were expected to be chaste, according to data
from countries including Britain, Australia, Mexico
and South America.
"Our findings help explain why many HIV programmes
have not been effective," the researchers said.
"Programmes that merely provide information and
condoms, without addressing the crucial social factors
identified are only tackling part of the problem,"
they added.
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