Assessment of premarital sexual practices and factors related to it among Ambo high school students
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2006-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Most young people throughout the world will be engaged in sexual intercourse by
age 20, whether married or unmarried (5). Study done in Ethiopia also revealed
that, 52.8% of high school students in North West Ethiopia to be sexually active
(3). Moreover the vast majority of sexual intercourse during adolescent are
unprotected, and therefore the risky of unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and
STIs including HIV/AIDS is very high for adolescents. Studies conducted so far
on adolescent pre-marital sexual practices and factors related to it in Ethiopia was
few in number and some of them were old and may not show the present reality.
A cross sectional study was conducted to assess the magnitude of pre marital
sexual practices and factors related to it among randomly selected sample of
Ambo high school students from Jan. 2006 to Feb. 2006. Data was collected using
anonymous self-administered questionnaire. A total of 813 students were
participated in the study. About 19.4% of the respondents had experienced sexual
intercourse. Eighty eight (56.4%) of the sexually active respondents claimed to
have more than one sexual partners.
About 16.5% of sexually active male adolescents visited female commercial sex
workers of which only 27.6% reported consistent condom use and 44.8% never
used condom during sex with female commercial sex workers. Pre marital sexual
intercourse was associated with discussion of sex related issues with their fathers
and age of the school adolescents. Those who discuss sex related issues with their
father less practiced pre marital sexual intercourse than those who were not
[OR=0.603(0.373, 0.975)].
Condom use during sexual intercourse was associated with access to information
about sexuality and adolescents reproduce health.
Provision of accurate information about adolescent reproductive health, enabling
the community to understand adolescents’ sexuality, and establishment of
adolescent reproductive health club in the school is essential.
Description
Keywords
Assessment of premarital sexual practices