Pleasure Over Prevention: Prioritising Attitudes Toward Intimacy Over Knowledge Deficits

Background

There are over 1 million new STI infections daily, and high-income countries are seeing rising STI rates driven by a marked decrease in condom use. Rising trends in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) highlight the need to better understand the cognitive and interpersonal aspects underpinning transmission. Specifically, empirical data linking cognitive variables to behaviour in the Irish context remains sparse.

Methods

This presentation integrates secondary empirical findings from two datasets of young adults in Ireland. First, an analysis of the Young People’s Sexual Health 2024–2025 dataset (n = 1,134) used binomial logistic regression to identify cognitive biases of consistent condom. Second, data from the “Growing up in Ireland” (GUI) longitudinal study (n ≈ 1,513) was used to explore, via ordinal logistic regression models, the relationship between personality traits and sexual health conversations at age 17/18 (T1), and their predictive power over consistent condom use at age 20 (T2), and age 25 (T3).

Results

Despite high levels of condom knowledge (80%) and negotiation confidence (76%), only 24% of participants reported consistent condom use. Key barriers included pleasure concerns, perceived reductions in spontaneity, and prioritisation of sexual performance, with combined effects substantially lowering the likelihood of consistent condom use. Complementary findings from the GUI dataset revealed that both extroversion, and having had conversations “about sex and sexual intercourse”, predicted (in)consistent condom use.

Conclusions

Together, these findings point to a refocus of some of the factors driving STI-preventive behaviours. While personality traits do not seem to play a fundamental role, condom use is shaped less by knowledge deficits or conversations about sexual health, and more by attitudes toward pleasure and intimacy.

Key messages

• Campaigns to promote condom use should directly address concerns related to pleasure and intimacy.

• Despite high levels of condom knowledge (80%) and negotiation confidence (76%), only 24% of participants reported consistent condom use.