Factors associated with condom use among youth aged 15–24 years in Brazil in 2003 Gabriela Calazans a,d , Teo W. Araujo a , Gustavo Venturi b,d and Ivan Franc ¸a Junior c,d Objective: To analyse factors associated with the lack of condom use among young people at last sexual intercourse with a steady or casual partner. Design: A cross-sectional study involving 1170 household interviews and designed to build a representative sample of the population of young Brazilian residents aged 15–24 years (2003). Methods: In the multivariate analysis of data, non-conditional logistic regression modelling was applied to assess the determinants of condom use at last sexual intercourse among young people with steady or casual partners. Results: The overall level of condom use at last sexual intercourse was high (60%), although it was significantly more common in casual sexual partnership. Cohabitation was associated with a lack of condom use in both casual and steady partner encounters. In addition, being female, having less schooling, having no work history, and per capita family income above the minimum wage were factors related to not using condoms in the group of young people who had their last sexual encounter with steady partners. Among young people with casual partners, such factors included a positive history of alcohol use, first sex at 9–16 years of age, inadequate knowledge of AIDS treatability and bereavement related to violence. Conclusion: This study confirmed that the determinants of condom use among youth during last sexual intercourse vary according to whether the partner was casual or steady. Prevention campaigns should develop specific messages for each of these contexts. ß 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins AIDS 2005, 19 (suppl 4):S42–S50 Keywords: condoms, Latin America, prevention of sexual transmission, risk factors, sexual behaviour Introduction Literature on AIDS prevention research has indicated that young people are an important target population because of an increased risk of sexually transmitted disease (STD)/ HIV infection and the fact that behavioural patterns established in youth may persist throughout life [1–3]. Historically in Brazil, young people present higher percentages of condom use compared with all other age groups [4–6]. Condom use varies significantly, among young people as well as among adults, according to the type of sexual relationship, defined as either ‘casual’ or ‘steady’ [4,5,7– 13]. When studying types of partnership, condom use has been found to be significantly less frequent and less consistent in steady than in casual relationships [11,13]. There have been few specific national studies involving youth and focusing on condom use, such as those con- ducted in Ghana [14] and in Mexico [15]. Most studies are From the a Centro de Refere ˆncia e Treinamento DST/AIDS, the b Criterium Assessoria em Pesquisas, the c Faculdade de Sau ´de Pu ´ blica da Universidade de Sa ˜o Paulo and the d Nu ´cleo de Estudos para a Prevenc ¸a ˜o da Aids da Universidade de Sa ˜o Paulo, Nepaids/USP, Sa ˜o Paulo, Brazil. Correspondence to Gabriela Calazans, Coordenac ¸a ˜ o Estadual de DST/AIDS – SP, Rua Santa Cruz, 81, 04121-000 Sa ˜ o Paulo, SP, Brasil. Tel: +55 11 5087 9904; fax: +55 11 5084 0777; e-mail: gcalazans@crt.saude.sp.gov.br S42 ISSN 0269-9370 Q 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins