UNDERSTANDING WHY HETEROSEXUAL ADULTS DO NOT PRACTICE SAFER SEX - A COMPARISON OF 2 SAMPLES

We assessed why heterosexually active adults did not have ''safer sex' ' with their last sexual partner. Subjects enrolled in HIV education a nd testing trials at a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic and a university student health service (SHS) completed questionnaires abou t their last sexual partner's risk factors for HIV and whether they ha d safer sex with this partner. Of the 652 sexually active subjects, 61 % reported not having safer sex with their last sexual partner and exp lained why, Low perceived risk of HIV infection was the most common re ason, indicated by 62%, though most knew too little about their partne r to ensure the encounter was low risk. Other reasons included condom unavailability (20%), the subject ''didn't want to'' use a condom (19% ), ''couldn't stop ourselves'' (15%), the partner's influence (14%), a nd alcohol or drug use (11%), Thirty-one percent of subjects indicated more than one reason for not having safer sex. SHS subjects more ofte n reported that the encounter was low risk for HIV transmission (p = 0 .0001), while STD subjects more often reported condom unavailability ( p = 0.002) and drug and alcohol use (p = 0.003). We conclude that ther e are many different factors promoting sexual behavior at risk of infe ction, combinations of which are important, and that these factors dif fer between samples, Preventive interventions must focus on the factor s most important to the targeted population and may need to consider m ultiple factors simultaneously.