The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) office for Europe has expressed concern over a decline in condom use among adolescents in recent years, citing increased risks of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies.
The warning comes from the latest WHO Europe report on health behaviour in school-age children.
The report is based on surveys of nearly 250,000 15-year-olds across 42 countries, including Canada and central Asia, conducted between 2014 and 2022.
The findings highlight a worrying trend of decreased condom use among teenagers, putting them at risk of STIs and unplanned pregnancies.
The WHO Europe report emphasizes the need for comprehensive sex education and accessible reproductive health services to address this trend and ensure the well-being of adolescents across the region.
“While results varied widely across the countries and regions, the most important observed trend since the (health behaviour in school-age children survey) in 2014 is of declines in some countries and regions in condom use among sexually active 15-year-olds,” said WHO’s Europe regional director, Dr. Hans Kluge in a preface to the report.
He said the results, which also examined the use of the contraceptive pill, were “dismaying” but “not surprising,” in light of neglected sex education in many countries. WHO and the authors urged decision-makers to do more to improve it.
In the countries where “age-appropriate” sexuality education is available, “it has increasingly come under attack in recent years on the false premise that it encourages sexual behaviour,” Kluge added.
Among the sexually active teens surveyed, WHO said the percentage of boys who said they had used a condom in their last sexual intercourse dropped to 61% in 2022, from 70% in 2014. Among girl respondents, the figure dropped to 57% from 63% over the same span.
Overall, the proportion of teens who reported having intercourse remained “relatively stable” since 2014, with one in five 15-year-old boys and 15% of girls of the same age reporting having had sex. The figure for boys was down slightly from 2018 when one in four reported having had intercourse.
Among other findings, teens from poorer, or “low-affluence,” families, were more likely to have reported not using a condom one in three compared to one in four among teens from wealthier backgrounds, Copenhagen, Denmark-based WHO Europe said.
The report also revealed that condom use among girls was lowest in Albania at 24% and highest in Serbia – 81%.
For boys, Sweden has the lowest rate of use at 43%, while the highest rate was in Switzerland with 77%
