Trust and condom use among young adults in relationships in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Young adults in sub-Saharan Africa most often state 'I trust my partner' as the reason for not using condoms consistently. This study assesses the extent to which young adults in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, trust their partners, how trust influences condom use and whether certain relationship characteristics influence the relationship between trust and condom use. Data were taken from the 2003 Tanzania Trust Survey, and the level of trust reported by 509 male and female young adults aged 15-24 who were in relationships was examined. The analysis showed that reported trust in a partner has the expected negative relationship with consistent condom use. However, this negative association differs by relationship characteristics. To facilitate the interpretation of interactions between marriage and trust, the predicted probabilities of consistent condom use by level of trust were calculated for males and for females by marital status, showing that the negative association is strong among those who are not married, but that there is no association between trust and condom use among young married adults.