Teenager pregnancy is high in Zambia and efforts
to curb this vice, including condom use, have had
little success. In order to design interventions to
raise condom use prevalence, interventions should
be designed based on scientific evidence. The
objective of the study was to determine correlates
for condom use at last sexual intercourse among
female teenagers aged 15-19 years. The Zambia
Demographic and Health Survey of 2013-2014 data
were used in the study to produce nationally
representative results. Logistic regression analyses
were conducted to determine correlates for
condom use. A total of 1485 sexually active female
teenagers of age 15–19 years participated in the
survey. About a third were of age 19 years (32.7%)
and were resident in urban areas (34.6%); 54.6%
had attained secondary or higher level and 54.6%
never been married. Out of 1485 teenagers who
were sexually active, 403 (24.4%) used a condom in
their most recent sexual intercourse. Age,
province, residence and marital status were
independently associated with condom use.
Teenagers of age 17 were 37% (AOR = 0.63, 95%
CI [0.45, 0.89]) less likely to use a condom
compared to older teenagers of age 19 years.
Compared to teenagers in Western province, while
teenagers in Central province were 71% (AOR =
1.71, 95% CI [1.09, 2.71]) more likely to use a
condom, those in Northern Province were 64%
(AOR = 0.36, 95% CI [0.16, 0.79]) less likely to use
a condom. Participants in urban areas were 1.38
(95% CI [1.15, 1.67]) times more likely to use a
condom compared to their counterparts in rural
areas. Teenagers who were never married were
1.88 (95% CI [1.55, 2.27]) times more likely to use
condom compared to teenagers who were married,
cohabited or once married. Sex partners of age less
than 20 years were more likely to use a condom
compared with sex partners aged 25 years or older
(AOR = 1.51, 95% CI [1.08, 2.12]). Interventions to
increase condom use rates should be targeted to
female teenagers in rural areas, provinces with low
condom uptake and female teenagers who are
married, cohabiting or once married to delay child
bearing in the process.