Only about half of young people wear condoms with new sexual partners, according to a study by the national health authority Sundhedsstyrelsen.
The study also revealed that young people stopped using condoms because they were unafraid of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
In connection with the study, Sundhedsstyrelsen is launching a campaign with the family-planning association Sex & Samfund to promote condom use.
The study revealed that three-quarters of adults aged 18-25 thought that the chances of being infected with an STD was either small or very small. The reality, however, is that a third of all Danes will contract an STD before the age of 25.
The reasons people gave for not using condoms ranged from the fact they knew their partner beforehand, that the female was using birth control, or that they simply forgot to use one.
The campaign hopes to promote condom use by getting people to think about what they want to be remembered for. Two-thirds of adults aged 18-25 said they want to be remembered for being a good sexual partner whereas almost 99 percent think it’s “bad style” to give a STD to a sexual partner.
“Most young people remember their sexual partners, good and bad,” Søren Ingemann Zinck from Sex & Samfund told Ritzau. “They remember the experience, whether their partner was a gentleman, but also whether they were infected with an STD.”
The incidence of chlamydia has doubled since the mid 1990s with about 30,000 new registered cases a year. The high incidence lead the Swedish health authority last November to warn Swedes to use condoms with Danish sexual partners.
