Browsing by Author "Mesfin,Rediet"

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    Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections and its Association with Emergency Contraceptive Use among Regular Female Students at Addis Ababa University
    (Addis Ababa University, 2025-08) Mesfin,Rediet; Molla,Mitike(PhD); Tadesse,Yordanos(BSc, MPH)
    Background: Emergency contraceptive (EC) use after unprotected sexual intercourse has become increasingly common among female university students. However, its repeated and sole use as a pregnancy prevention method exposes users to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, due to risky sexual behaviors and inconsistent use of preventive measures like condoms. Despite its widespread use, there is a paucity of evidence about EC use and STI status among female university students in Ethiopia. Objectives: This study aims to assess the prevalence of STI, emergency contraceptive use and its association with STIs among female regular undergraduate university students at AAU. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a multistage sampling method from randomly chosen departments within each college. Data were collected using a self-administered structured online questionnaire from 793 students, exported to STATA, and descriptive analysis, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression were done. Results: The study shows there is high EC use and STI prevalence among the participants where 52.3% was using EC in the past year and out of those 81% using it repeatedly. A little less than half (43.7%) of the students had STI in the past year, and the number rises to 63.7% among EC users. Only 31.5% had persistent use of condoms. There is a strong association between EC use and STI status with AOR of 17.71 (SE=8.10, 95%CI) after adjustment. Conclusions: The strong association between EC use and STI status can indicate EC use is associated with unprotected sex and risky sexual behaviors. In addition, the results show students are more concerned about pregnancy than STI risk. Thus there is a need for comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education emphasizing on integrated STI and pregnancy prevention. Further research is required to explore the facilitators and barriers behind EC use over other contraceptive methods.