Assessment of Level of Knowledge of Reproductive Health and Sexual Behavior among Adolescents in Nekemte Town
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Date
2005-04
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
The adolescence period is a very interesting one. Isangedihi (1994)
sees the period as a time of growth spurt, caused by increased
hormonal activities and of self-awareness and development. Although
studies have been conducted to assess sexual behaviors of
adolescents still the reproductive health problems and sexual
behaviors of younger people and their contributing factors are not
well assessed and documented for every parts of the country.
A cross-sectional community based survey was conducted to assess
the level of knowledge of reproductive health especially HIV /AIDs
and risky sexual behavior among urban adolescents. Data were
collected using a structured pre tested questionnaire. Knowledge
score was calculated for HIV /AIDS by computing 29 dichotomous
variables related to the knowledge of HIV /AIDS. Odds ratio with
95% CI was employed to test the significant association between
measurement variables and multiple logistic regression was also
utilized to control for the possible confounders.
A total of 748 adolescents aged 12 –19 years were identified to
participate in this study .Out of these, 16 refused to participate
while 11 involved partially in the study. Data were collected only
from 721 study subjects, 316 (43.8%) males and 405 (56.2%) females,
yielding the response rate of 96.4 %. The mean age of the
respondents is 16 years (+ 2 SD). Nearly 66.0% of them knew about
RH. 701(97.0%) out of 721 adolescents mentioned diseases that a
person could acquire through sexual intercourse. These include
HIV/AIDS 674(96.1%), gonorrhea 621(88.6%), and syphilis 583
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(83.2%), chancroid 523 (74.6 %) and LGV 295 (42.1%), respectively.
A substantial proportion (44.2%) of the adolescents can be
considered knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS. 18.0% of them were
sexually active and the mean age at sexual commencement was 14.48
(+ 2.89 SD) years for males and 14.86 (+ 2.19 SD) for females.
35.0% of the respondents have reported that they have had two or
more life time sexual partners.
Being male, knowing means of avoiding pregnancy and where to get RH
services, accessibility of RH services and being sexually active
were found to influence adolescents’ knowledge of HIV /AIDS
positively while younger age and ever visit of health institution
for RH services affected their knowledge negatively.
Multipartnership or risky sexual behavior was 2.4 times more common
among males compared to females (OR=2.408 (1.028,5.64). However,
accessibility of RH services, ever discussion of sexual matters
with parents, alcohol and khat consumption were found to influence
risky sexual behavior negatively.
The condom use rate among adolescents was 36.9 %. Orthodox
Christians were found to use condom less likely compared to Catholic
and Muslim religious people. Similarly, the study subjects who have
ever had one life time sexual partner, discussed about sexual
matters with their parents and smoked cigarettes were also found to
use condom less likely compared to their counter parts. It was
concluded that few knew correctly the components of RH and this
could lead to the development of risky sexual and reproductive
behavior and Parent- young people communication on sexual matters
was very poor. Thus, Strengthening of I .E .C on RH matters for
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adolescents in an effort to enhance their level of awareness on
adolescent RH including HIV/ AIDS by involving parents, religious
and other community leaders and relevant organizational sectors as
well, facilitating adolescents’ peer education on their sexuality
both at the school and family level, and designing means of
increasing parents-young people communication on sexuality from
early adolescence to overcome the untimely RH problems were
recommended .
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Keywords
Assessment of Level of Knowledge of Reproductive Health