Introduction: The use of male condoms assists in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections
and pregnancy. However, their use among health students has been scarcely studied in Chile. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of condoms and to characterize the sexual activity and history of sexually transmitted infections among students of the Faculty of Medicine of Universidad de Valparaíso in Chile. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study. The Confidential Questionnaire of Active Sexual Life was administered, and the Fisher’s exact test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for inferential analysis. Results: A total of 143 students (69% women) were included in the study. The students’ average age when they first had sexual intercourse was 17+1,8 years. During the last 12 months, 6.3% always used a condom, 69.2% sometimes used a condom, and 24.5% never used a condom during penetrative sex (91.6% of the sexual encounters were heterosexual); in terms of the type of sexual practice, 41.9% declared always using condoms in anal intercourse, 25.8% in vaginal, and 0.8% in oral intercourse; 3.5% had a history of having a sexually transmitted
infection. No associations were found between the use of condom and the participants’ sex, history of sexually transmitted infections, average age of their first sexual intercourse, or university career. Discussion: A small number of participants reported a history of sexually transmitted infections. A low proportion of health students of consistently use condoms, with a higher proportion in anal intercourse, which might be related to a low-risk perception of not using a condom.
Keywords:
Condoms, Sexual health, Students, Health education, Sexually transmitted diseases
Carroza, B., Carvallo, J., Cataldo, R., Arancibia, M., & Papuzinski, C. (2021). Use of condoms among undergraduate health students at Universidad de Valparaíso: a cross-sectional study. Revista Chilena De Salud Pública, 24(2), p. 97–103. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5281.2020.61258
