DIFFERENCES IN SEXUAL RISK BEHAVIOR BETWEEN YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN TRAVELING ABROAD FROM THE UK

Background Identification of people who most frequently engage in sexu al risk behaviour while travelling abroad would be useful for the desi gn and targeting of health education and promotion campaigns. Methods Eligible participants were people living in the UK aged 18-34 years wh o had travelled abroad without a partner in the previous 2 years. Resp ondents were first screened for eligibility as part of representative face-to-face and telephone surveys by a market research company. Eligi ble individuals who agreed to take part then underwent a computer-assi sted telephone interview. Reinterviewing continued until 400 eligible people had been contacted. We also interviewed a control group of 568 young people who had travelled abroad without a partner in the previou s 2 years but who did not report a new sexual relationship during thei r travels. Findings One in ten of the eligible participants reported s exual intercourse with a new partner. Travellers who reported a new se xual relationship abroad were also likely to report large numbers of s exual partners at home. Of the 400 people who had a new sexual partner abroad, 300 (75%) used condoms on all occasions with the new partner. Logistic regression modelling showed differences between men and wome n in those factors linked to the practice of unsafe or safer sex while travelling. For men, patterns of condom use abroad with casual partne rs (p<0.001) reflected patterns of use at home (p<0.001), whereas for women, patterns of condom use varied according to their partners' back grounds (p<0.001). Interpretation Condoms are widely used among young travellers, but patterns of use vary by sex. Campaigns about sexual he alth targeted at international travellers should continue, not least b ecause young people who meet new sexual partners abroad may be a conve nient proxy group for that minority of the population who report most sexual partners at home. Such campaigns should be designed differently for men and women.