In order to understand the sexual behavior patterns of 15-24 year old heterosexual young women, AIDS Concern conducted a survey of 195 young women from April 2016 to March 2017 to understand their condom use and sexually transmitted diseases rate.
The adolescents who had been interviewed had had one or more sexual intercourse within last six months. According to the survey, only 16%, 22% and 29% of young women who had sex with their boyfriends, regular sex partners and irregular sex partners in the past six months “used condoms every time” during sex.
20% of the respondents did not use condoms because of the partners. The reasons included “partners require not using condoms”, “do not want to ruin the mood”, “more intimate with their partners” and “fear to affect their relationships”. It can be seen that young women lack of bargaining power; they are willing to maintain the relationships rather than protecting themselves.
The survey also found that nearly 40% surveyed young women underestimated their risk of sexually transmitted diseases, while 80% of the young women were assessed as at high risk. (Note: high risk of sexually transmitted diseases means someone occur unsafe sexual intercourse). In addition, 16% of young women (22/137 people; 21 people infected with chlamydia and one infected with gonorrhea).
AIDS Concern project manager (community study and adolescents) Jim Hoe said the results reflect the disadvantaged situation of adolescents in sexual relations, thus AIDS Concern suggests that young people who have unsafe sex should get tested as soon as possible. For long term, the community needs to strengthen comprehensive education in Hong Kong. “Secondary schools sex education in Hong Kong only focuses on physical health and less intends to couples’ communication skills and the importance of the use of condoms. The Education Bureau should immediately look at the Guidelines on Sex Education in Schools published in 1997, put more resources for young sexual health.”
If you have any inquiries, please contact the Marketing and Communications Officer of AIDS Concern
Tobey Tse
Tel: 2864 1315 Email: Tobey.tse@aidsconcern.org.hk
Table 1：Key results
* Sexually transmitted diseases rate of young men: 4.5%
(22/481 people; 18 people infected with chlamydia; 2 infected with gonorrhea and 2 infected with both diseases)