A study*, soon to be published in the American Journal of Public Health, has shown that adolescents who use condoms the first time they have sex continue to have better safer-sex habits than adolescents who don't use condoms at their sexual debut. Adolescents were followed for an average of 7 years after their first experience with sexual intercourse. Those teenagers who had used condoms the first time they had sex were significantly more likely to have used condoms during their most recent sexual experience than those teenagers who hadn't. They were also half as likely to have chlamydia or gonorrhea. This confirms the suggestions of previous studies that the best way to avoid developing bad sexual habits is never to start them in the first place.

* Shafii, Taraneh, Katherine Stovel, and King Holmes. "Association Between Condom Use at Sexual Debut and Subsequent Sexual Trajectories: A Longitudinal Study Using Biomarkers" American Journal of Public Health (2007). [EPub ahead of print] Accessed 4/28/07