(American Journal of Public Health) -- Despite efforts to encourage condom use as an HIV/AIDS prevention method, the number of American adults using condoms has remained unchanged since 1996.

In a survey of 5,743 adults , condom use remained steady at 19.5 percent of the adult population surveyed in 1996, 1998 and 2000. And while those people defined as at risk for HIV are more likely to use condoms than the general population, 64 percent did not use condoms with their ongoing sexual partner "and therefore were placing their partners or themselves at risk for acquiring or transmitting HIV."

The Healthy People 2000 goal was to have 50 percent of unmarried adults using condoms, but this study puts that number at only 35.1 percent.