Self-reported factors influencing condom use among clinic attendees

Data were collected from a convenience sample of 231 urban women seeking health care at a Midwestern women's health care center at a city medical center. Participants responded to 53 items, most taken from the Family Health Center Survey, which was designed to elicit descriptive data related to three major categories: background factors, factors that might influence the decision to use a condom, and knowledge and attitudes that might predict condom acquisition. Knowledge of HIV transmission and safer sex was not a predictor of condom use. Through education and demonstrations of proper condom usage, nurses and other health care providers were influential in persuading adolescents and young adults to use condoms.