A recent survey that found low rates of condom use among single adults in their 50s reflects the age groups' approach to casual sexual relationships, experts say, the New York Times reports. The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, one of the most extensive national studies on sexual health in 20 years, found that 25% of U.S. residents ages 50 and older who were single or had a new sex partner or multiple sex partners in the past year said they used a condom the last time the had sex. Nearly 40% had never had an HIV test, and many did not know their partners' sexual history.
The study -- based on a large, nationally representative survey of sexual behavior -- found that almost 23% of men 50 and older identified their most recent sex partner as a "friend" or a "new acquaintance," as did more than 13% of women in the age group. Although teens and young adults might have coined the phrase "friends with benefits" to describe sexual partners who are "just friends" and not romantically involved, the practice "probably started during the [1960s] sexual revolution, when the middle-aged Americans of today were young themselves," according to the Times.
"'Friends with benefits' are uniquely suited to two groups of people -- the young, who want to delay starting their life, and older people, who don't want to complicate it," according to Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and member of the sexual health advisory council of Trojan condom maker Church & Dwight, which financed the survey. Study author Debby Herbenick, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, said middle-aged heterosexual women could have limited expectations for their sexual relationships because women often outlive men, thus resulting in fewer older men with whom to share relationships.
Experts said many reasons could account for the low condom use among people age 50 and older. According to Herbenick, many older U.S. singles have spent many years in long-term committed relationships and think of HIV/AIDS as a problem that afflicts younger people. In addition, people over 50 are not targeted by public health messages that encourage condom use and are not encourage by parents to use condoms, as younger people are. Herbenick also said that older men might worry that condoms could cause erectile problems. She also noted than older people simply might be out of the habit of using condoms. "They may just be thinking, 'Gosh, it's been 20 years since I used a condom, I'm not going to start again,'" she said (Rabin, New York Times, 10/9).
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