IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v44y1997i9p1303-1312.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission

Author

Listed:
  • Pinkerton, Steven D.
  • Abramson, Paul R.

Abstract

The consistent use of latex condoms continues to be advocated for primary prevention of HIV infection despite limited quantitative evidence regarding the effectiveness of condoms in blocking the sexual transmission of HIV. Although recent meta-analyses of condom effectiveness suggest that condoms are 60 to 70% effective when used for HIV prophylaxis, these studies do not isolate consistent condom use, and therefore provide only a lower bound on the true effectiveness of correct and consistent condom use. A reexamination of HIV seroconversion studies suggests that condoms are 90 to 95% effective when used consistently, i.e. consistent condom users are 10 to 20 times less likely to become infected when exposed to the virus than are inconsistent or non-users. Similar results are obtained utilizing model-based estimation techniques, which indicate that condoms decrease the per-contact probability of male-to-female transmission of HIV by about 95%. Though imperfect, condoms provide substantial protection against HIV infection. Condom promotion therefore remains an important international priority in the fight against AIDS.

Suggested Citation

  • Pinkerton, Steven D. & Abramson, Paul R., 1997. "Effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 1303-1312, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:44:y:1997:i:9:p:1303-1312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(96)00258-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francis, Andrew M., 2008. "The economics of sexuality: The effect of HIV/AIDS on homosexual behavior in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 675-689, May.
    2. Judith Lammers & Sweder van Wijnbergen & Daan Willebrands, 2011. "Gender Differences, HIV Risk Perception and Condom Use," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-051/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Rosie L Latimer & Lenka A Vodstrcil & Christopher K Fairley & Vincent J Cornelisse & Eric P F Chow & Tim R H Read & Catriona S Bradshaw, 2018. "Non-consensual condom removal, reported by patients at a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Dagne Deresa Dinagde & Hana Tadesse Afework & Habtamu Wana Wada & Meserat Workiye Negash, 2024. "Level of HIV serodiscordance and associated factors among heterosexual couples in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(6), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner, 2010. "Social Change: The Sexual Revolution," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(4), pages 893-923, November.
    6. Bimala Sharma & Eun Woo Nam, 2018. "Condom Use at Last Sexual Intercourse and Its Correlates among Males and Females Aged 15–49 Years in Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner, 2006. "Social Change," 2006 Meeting Papers 79, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Steven D. Pinkerton & David R. Holtgrave & Laura C. Leviton & David A. Wagstaff & Paul R. Abramson, 1998. "Model-Based Evaluation of Hiv Prevention Interventions," Evaluation Review, , vol. 22(2), pages 155-174, April.
    9. Sabina S Alistar & Douglas K Owens & Margaret L Brandeau, 2014. "Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness of Oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in a Portfolio of Prevention Programs for Injection Drug Users in Mixed HIV Epidemics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    10. Ana P. Johnson-Masotti & Purushottam W. Laud & Raymond G. Hoffmann & Matthew J. Hayat & Steven D. Pinkerton, 2001. "Probabilistic Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of HIV Prevention," Evaluation Review, , vol. 25(4), pages 474-502, August.
    11. Laurenia C. Mangum & Jaih Craddock, 2025. "Sexual and Reproductive Health Behaviors Among Young Black Women in the U.S. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights for Addressing Future Challenges in STI and Pregnancy Prevention Within Key Female P," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(5), pages 1-16, May.
    12. Stephanie Earnshaw & Katherine Hicks & Anke Richter & Amanda Honeycutt, 2007. "A linear programming model for allocating HIV prevention funds with state agencies: a pilot study," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 239-252, September.
    13. repec:plo:pone00:0192357 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Danni Xia & Yingjie Chen & Ruijie Chang & Chen Xu & Xiaoyue Yu & Yujie Liu & Hui Chen & Rongxi Wang & Shangbin Liu & Xin Ge & Yuxuan Wang & Ajuan Liang & Fan Hu & Yong Cai & Ying Wang, 2022. "Psychosocial Problems and Condomless Anal Sex among Transgender Women in Two Cities of China: Study Based on the Syndemic Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Fern Terris‐Prestholt & Matthew Quaife & Peter Vickerman, 2016. "Parameterising User Uptake in Economic Evaluations: The role of discrete choice experiments," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S1), pages 116-123, February.
    16. repec:plo:pone00:0116694 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Masunga K. Iseselo & Edith A. M. Tarimo & Eric Sandstrom & Asli Kulane, 2020. "Sexual Behaviours and Practices before and after Phase I/II HIV Vaccine Trial: A Qualitative Study among Volunteers in Dar es Salaam Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-20, October.
    18. Amanda Srsic & Katarzyna Dubas-Jakóbczyk & Ewa Kocot, 2021. "The Economic Consequences of Decriminalizing Sex Work in Washington, DC—A Conceptual Model," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:44:y:1997:i:9:p:1303-1312. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.