Residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, reported the lowest condom use in the five boroughs, according to a recent Heath Department survey.
Credit: Colourbox
The majority of New Yorkers continue to have sex without condoms and their use is lowest in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, according to a recent Health Department survey.
After surveying some 8,500 New Yorkers across the five boroughs, the Health Department found that only 14.2 percent of sexually-active Greenpoint residents said they or their partners used a condom the last time they had sex.
The highest rate of condom use, around 43.3 percent, was in Central Harlem, according to the 2012 Community Health Survey.
The survey also found that only 31.8 percent of sexually-active New Yorkers used condoms the last time they had sex.
Less than 35 percent of New Yorkers reported using condoms nearly every year since the survey was first conducted in 2003.
In a statement, the Health Department noted that condom use has been increasing for people at risk for HIV, from 49.4 percent in 2003 to 58.3 percent in 2012, according to survey results.
“In specialized surveys done of high-risk men who have sex with men in 2012, 79 percent of those surveyed in person and 57 percent of those surveyed online used a condom at last sex,” the statement continued.
Free condoms distributed by the Health Department cost less than $1 each, while the estimated lifetime cost of HIV treatment is $360,000.
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