Vietnam Population and AIDS Indicator Survey 2005 ... - Measure DHS

example, ten percent of female youth have had sex before the age of 18, while only 3 percent of male
youth report having done so. However, women tend to marry at younger ages than men do; the median
age at marriage is two years younger among women (21.2 years old) than it is among men (23.5 years
old) (VNDHS 2002). Likewise, rural residents tend to marry at younger ages than urban residents, thereby
resulting in higher proportions having had sex by age 18 in rural areas than in urban areas.
Among women, there is a strong relationship between level of education and age at first sex,
which also correlates to age at marriage (data not shown). Young women aged 18-24 who have not
attended school are far more likely to have had sex before age 18 (30 percent) than young women with at
least secondary education (7 percent).
In terms of wealth, survey results show that young women aged 18-24 who are in poorer
households are more likely than those who are in wealthier households to have had sex by age 18; there is
a similar but less pronounced pattern among young men.
7.5 CONDOM USE AT FIRST SEX
Along with postponement of first sexual intercourse, early and consistent condom use is a means
for youths to prevent becoming infected with HIV. In order to assess the extent of condom use from the
beginning of sexual exposure, respondents aged 15-24 were asked whether they had used condoms the
first time they had sex. The results are shown in Table 7.3 by background characteristics.
Four percent of young women and 19 percent of young men aged 15-24 said that they used
condoms the first time they had sexual intercourse. Never-married men are much more likely to have used
a condom at first sex (58 percent) than men who have married (6 percent). Urban women and especially
urban men are more likely than rural women and men to have used a condom at first sex. There is a
tendency for the percent of youths who used condoms at first sex to increase with increasing education
and increasing wealth. Men in the South are more likely than men in the North or Central regions to have
used a condom at first sex (29 percent versus 17 and 4 percent, respectively).
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