Age at first sex: understanding recent trends in African demographic surveys

Abstract

Objectives: To describe recent trends in age at first sex in African countries, identifying and making due allowances for a variety of common reporting errors. Methods: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from six African countries conducting three or more surveys since 1985 were analysed using survival analysis techniques, combining information on virginity status and retrospective reporting of age at first sex. Hazard analysis was used to separate the effects of reporting error and compositional change and to estimate true changes in sexual debut over time. A multistate life table analysis incorporating transition to first marriage allowed cohorts to be classified according to person years spent as virgins, as sexually active unmarried, and married.

Individual- and Community-Level Influences on the Timing of Sexual Debut Among Youth in Nyanza, Kenya

“…Previous studies failed to capture the complexity of delaying sexual intercourse because they examined only individual-level variables. 4,13,15,16 This study fills an important gap by identifying school-and community-level variables associated with the timing of sexual debut among school-going youth. The finding that some youth in Nyanza (36% of males and 16% of females) began having sex by age 12 is consistent with studies showing that youth initiate sexual activity earlier in this province than in other Kenyan provinces; 6 the gender difference is consistent with data showing that early sexual experience is more common among males than females.…”

“…11,12 Previous studies that examined the timing of first sexual intercourse among youth, including our own work, have focused largely on individual-level variables. [13][14][15][16] Although a few studies have acknowledged the relevance of structural and community variables, they have rarely established empirical connections between these variables and sexual debut. 4,[17][18][19] This study, which applies multilevel discrete-time hazard models to data collected from youth in Nyanza, fills an important research gap by examining the association of both individual-level and school-and community-level variables with the timing of first sexual intercourse.…”

Protecting Young Women from HIV/AIDS: The Case Against Child and Adolescent Marriage

“…Finally, both current status and recall data are subject to bias. 25 Current status measures of adolescents do not take into account that married adolescents tend to be older than unmarried ones, even within the 15-19-year-old agegroup. Recall bias regarding age at first intercourse and age of first marriage in this age-group is probably minimal, however, as both events are likely to have occurred recently.…”

Reproductive Health and Behavior, HIV/AIDS, and Poverty in Africa

“…One should pay particular attention to characteristics that should not be changing over time, such as the mean years of education of adults in a given cohort (i.e., born in the same year or several-year interval): if the sampled populations are the same in two surveys, these means should be statistically the same (see . To adjust for changes in sample, one can stratify the data on characteristics such as education and location and examine changes in behavior within these categories, as in Zaba et al (2004). A more flexible approach would be to estimate a regression (or probit, or other model as appropriate) for the behavior including as regressors indicators for survey round and controls for a range of characteristics (education, age, location, wealth, etc.).…”