A new study from The Miriam Hospital found a negative relationship between alcohol consumption and condom use among college women. The findings show that the more alcohol college women consume, the less likely they are to use a condom during sexual activity.
Researchers took a unique approach in conducting this study, examining associations between alcohol, condom use and familiarity with sexual partners.
“We certainly know unprotected sex puts women at risk, yet there has been a gap in research specifically focusing on changes in condom use in college,” said lead author Jennifer Walsh, a researcher with The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.
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The study looked at data from 279 first-year female college students who provided monthly reports on their alcohol intake, sexual activity and condom use.
Results showed that women who drank 4 or more drinks, otherwise known as binge drinking, were much more likely to not use a condom.
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Concern over unsafe sex among college students has increased over the years. Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 account for 50 percent of all new HIV infections. While statistics conclude that college students are not at the highest risk of contracting HIV, their sexual risk-taking can drastically increase their chances.
Many women also believe that alcohol causes greater sexual arousal.
“It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it could lead to unsafe sex,” Walsh said. “College students have strong normative ideas with alcohol use and hooking up. They believe that their peers are drinking more and having more unprotected sex than they really are.”
The women in this study drank in 87 percent of sexual encounters involving strangers. However, they drank in 5 percent of sexual encounters with established romantic partners.
Partner types proved to be important event-level predictors of condom use. Women were more likely to use a condom with acquaintances and strangers. Yet, the more they drank with these partner types, the less likely they were to use a condom, increasing their risk for sexually transmitted diseases.
“Certainly, the statistics are really alarming,” Walsh said.
23-year-old Sarah, a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, began practicing safe sex in college. It wasn’t until June 2011 that she learned she was HIV positive.
“I became sexually active a few years prior to being diagnosed, but the idea of safe sex started to wear off when I became more social in college,” she said.
Sarah found herself drinking too much at a house party and having casual, unprotected sex with an acquaintance.
“I didn’t think anything of it at the time,” she said, “But in hindsight it was the worst decision I’ve made in my life.”
Sarah has yet to share her diagnosis to anyone outside of her immediate family, including the young man who infected her. She dreads the idea disclosing her diagnoses with any future partner.
College women often engage in “serial monogamy,” resulting in multiple partners. This increases a woman’s risk of infecting any future sexual partners. Many college women choose hormonal contraceptives as their form of birth control, which does not protect them or their sexual partner from HIV.
“Condom use remains the best dual method, sexual risk reduction strategy in that it protects against most STDs and against unintended pregnancy,” Michael Carey, co-author of the study, said. “Our results show that alcohol or other drugs can interfere with condom use in complex ways.”
The Miriam Hospital, which oversaw the study, provides over 75% of the HIV care within the state. HIV testing is free for at-risk populations.
