GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization’s European office on Thursday lamented a decline in condom use among young people in recent years and warned of risks of infection and unwanted pregnancies in countries from Canada to Central Asia.
The findings come from WHO Europe’s latest report on health behaviour among school-age children and are based on surveys of almost a quarter of a million 15-year-olds in 42 countries between 2014 and 2022.
“While results varied widely across countries and regions, the most important trend since the 2014 survey on health behaviour among school-age children is the decline in condom use among sexually active 15-year-olds in some countries and regions,” said Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, in a foreword to the report.
He said the findings, which also looked at the use of the contraceptive pill, were “worrying” but “not surprising” given the neglected sex education in many countries. The WHO and the authors urged policymakers to do more to improve it.
In countries where “age-appropriate” sex education is offered, “it has come under increasing criticism in recent years because it is wrongly believed that it promotes sexual behavior,” Kluge added.
Among sexually active teenagers surveyed, the proportion of boys who reported using a condom during their last sexual intercourse fell from 70% in 2014 to 61% in 2022. Among girls surveyed, the number fell from 63% to 57% over the same period.
Overall, the proportion of teenagers reporting having had sexual intercourse has remained “relatively stable” since 2014 – one in five 15-year-old boys and 15% of girls of the same age reported having had sex. For boys, the figure has fallen slightly since 2018, when one in four reported having had sexual intercourse.
Among other things, teenagers from poorer or “less affluent” families were more likely to report not using condoms – one in three compared to one in four among teenagers from wealthier backgrounds, according to WHO Europe, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The report found that condom use among girls was lowest in Albania (24%) and highest in Serbia (81%). Among boys, the use rate was lowest in Sweden (43%), while the use rate was highest in Switzerland (77%).
