Almost half of sexually active 15-year-olds in Ireland did not use a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse, according to a new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On Thursday, the WHO Europe office published new research showing high rates of unprotected sex among adolescents across the bloc, which the organisation said has “significant implications for health and safety”.
According to the report, known as the 2022 national health behaviour in school-aged children study, 44 per cent of 15-year-old boys reported they or their partner did not use a condom during their last incident of sexual intercourse, with this number being 49 per cent for girls.
A further 6 per cent of boys and 2 per cent of girls did not know if they or their partner used a condom the last time they had sex.
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Adding to this, 73 per cent of boys said that they or their partner had not used the contraceptive pill the last time they engaged in sexual activity, while 59 per cent of girls said this.
Some 6 per cent of boys said they did not know if they or their partner used the contraceptive pill, while for girls this was less than 0.5 per cent.
The study also examined the prevalence of sexual activity, with Ireland having a much lower prevalence than many of the other countries included in the research, at 10 per cent of 15-year-olds.
However, this is affected by affluence, with the prevalence of having had sex being significantly higher among low-affluence boys (19 per cent) than high-affluence boys (8 per cent).
Overall across Europe, the proportion of sexually active adolescents who used a condom at last intercourse fell from 70 per cent to 61 per cent among boys and 63 per cent to 57 per cent among girls between 2014 and 2022
Dr András Költő from the University of Galway, and lead author of the report, said comprehensive sexual education is “key to closing these gaps and empowering all young people to make informed decisions about sex”.
“But education must go beyond just providing information. Young people need safe spaces to discuss issues like consent, intimate relationships, gender identity and sexual orientation,” he said.
Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said the report’s findings are “dismaying” but “not surprising”.
“Age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education remains neglected in many countries, and where it is available, it has increasingly come under attack in recent years on the false premise that it encourages sexual behaviour, when the truth is that equipping young persons with the right knowledge at the right time leads to optimal health outcomes linked to responsible behaviour and choices,” he said.
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