Background: To facilitate effective program designs aimed at assisting youth avoid
unnecessary negative reproductive health outcomes, there is need to understand determinants
of condom use among adolescents. Objectives: To determine demographic,
socioeconomic and psychosocial factors associated with adolescent condom
use in Botswana. Methods: Logistic regression models were employed to analyse a
weighted sample of 221 adolescents aged 15 to 19 years from the 2012 Botswana
AIDS Impact Survey who had a sexual relationship during the 12 months preceding
the survey. Results: A majority of adolescents were current and consistent condom
users (81% and 72% respectively). Both current and consistent condom use were
positively associated with secondary or higher education, unemployed, high perception
of severity of HIV to health and high self-efficacy perception. However, being
female, non-Christian, having medium or comprehensive HIV/AIDS related knowledge
and high perceived personal risk to HIV infection were negatively associated
with both outcomes. Although being 18 to 19 years, having multiple sexual partners
and high perception of condom attributes were positively associated with current
condom use, they were negatively associated with consistent use. Conclusions: The
study showed that in addition to demographic and socioeconomic factors, psychosocial
factors are important predictors for condom use among adolescents.