Condom Failure Among HIV-Negative Men in Serodiscordant Relationships in Australia, Brazil, and Thailand

Condoms continue to be used by many gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) to reduce the risk of HIV transmission.

However this is impacted by condom failure events, defined here as condom breakage and slippage.

In a prospective, observational cohort study of 343 HIV serodiscordant male couples recruited through high HIV caseload clinics and hospitals between 2012 and 2016 in Australia, Brazil, and Thailand, condom failure rates and associated factors were analysed, including with the study partner versus other sexual partners.

There were 717 reported instances of condom failure from an estimated total of 25,831 sex acts with condoms, from over 588.4 participant years of follow up.

Of the HIV-negative partners (n = 343) in the study, more than a third (n = 117, 36.7%) reported at least one instance of condom failure with any partner type during study follow-up.

Condom failure with their study partner was reported by 91/343 (26.5%) HIV-negative partners, compared with 43/343 (12.5%) who reported condom failure with other partners.

In total, there were 86 events where the HIV-negative partner experienced ano-receptive condom failure with ejaculation, representing 12.0% of all failure events.

In multivariable analysis, compared to Australia, HIV-negative men in Brazil reported a higher incidence risk rate of condom failure (IRR = 1.64, 95%CI 1.01–2.68, p = 0.046) and HIV-negative men who reported anal sex with other partners reported an increased risk of condom failure compared with men who only had sex with their study partner (IRR = 1.89, 95%CI 1.08–3.33, p = 0.025).

Although at least one event of condom failure was reported by a significant proportion of participants, overall condom failure events represented a small proportion of the total condom protected sex acts.