An investigation of college age students' primary incentive for utilizing condoms

Today, a potentially lethal virus (HIV) presents those who are and those who will be sexually active with choices to make concerning their use of prophylactics. The purpose of this research was to study the present use of condoms among the fraternity and sorority population on the campus of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The particular questions investigated surround (1) the primary incentive for the use of condoms, (2) the concern with preventing AIDS or other STDs, and (3) the difficulty in obtaining condoms. Three hundred and eleven subjects completed a 26 item researcher developed questionnaire. Data analysis consisted of frequencies used for descriptive purposes in this nonexperimental, univariate descriptive study.

The results showed the primary incentive for the use of condoms to be prevention of a potential pregnancy. The majority of subjects indicated more concern with the prevention of AIDS rather than other STDs and reported no difficulties in obtaining condoms. Implications for nursing derived from these findings center around public educational efforts to distribute factual information about HIV infection and the use of condoms to prevent transmission of HIV.

The Health Belief Model served as the theoretical framework for this study. Application of the HBM to this study revealed cues to action and that the benefits of condom use must be enhanced to increase the use of condoms by this population to prevent the transmission of HIV.