Early Sexual Initiation and its Associated Factors Among in-School Adolescents ofAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Introduction: Early sexual debut has become an emerging global concern, and adolescents
who begin early sexual activity are less likely to use condoms and more likely to have
multiple partners and early child bearing which intern brings about higher rates of maternal
and child morbidity and mortality. Higher rates of unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and
other sexually transmitted infections among adolescents make it fundamental to understand
factors associated with early sexual initiation in a wider perspective for designing and
implementing effective interventions.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of early sexual initiation and its associated factors
among in-school adolescents of Addis Ababa.
Methodology: A quantitative comparative cross sectional facility based study supplemented
with qualitative enquiry was conducted from March - April/ 2017 to draw a total sample of
548adolescents attendingprimary and secondary education in Addis Ababa. A multistage
sampling technique was applied to select the study participants. A pretested structured
questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while FGD were used to generate
qualitative information. After data have been collected, Epi data 3.1 was used for data entry
and cleaned and coded data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Bivariate and
multivariate analyses were done. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was estimated to
identify predictors of early sexual debut using multivariable logistic regression analysis.
Result: Ninety two (17.4%) surveyed adolescents have ever had sexual debut and the
prevalence of early sexual initiation in our study was 16.4%.The median age at first sex in
our finding was similarly 15 years for both community international and governmental
students.Being encountered pressure from friends to have sex Adjusted OR=7.1(1.7, 28.8),
using computer for games and internet for more than two hours/week Adjusted OR=3.5(1.1,
11.6), not religious Adjusted OR=5.7(1.2, 28.2), RH club member ship, Adjusted OR=11(2.0,
69.1) perceptions towards father response concerning menstruation will be not helpful
Adjusted OR=4.5(1.4, 14.4) were significantly associated with early sexual initiation. More
over the odds of ever view/see/read pornographic materials was twenty three times higher
than who hadn’t viewed Adjusted OR=23.1(1.1, 85.4)
Conclusions and recommendations:-This study indicates that a considerable proportion of
adolescents were engaged in sexual activity at an early age and continues to practice risky
sexual behaviors and the median age of sexual initiation between governmental and
community intern. In order to delay sexual debut, well designed sexual education which
address adolescents SRH should be considered
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Keywords
Adolescents; Sexual initiation