Assessment of Time of Sexual Initiation and Its Associated Factors among Students in Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: As many evidences showed, commencing sex at younger age was risk for acquiring HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and of experiencing unplanned Pregnancy due to practicing of it without plan/ not using protective materials. In North East Ethiopia, of half (51.3%) of youths initiated sex at median age of 17 years, 39.1% of them were practicing without plan, three quarter (73.1%) were not discussing about contraception and half of them were having more than one sexual partner. In northwest Ethiopian students, the prevalence of HIV infection, and other STIs was 1.1%, and 10.7% respectively and a quarter (24.3%) of students was experiencing pregnancy that was ended with abortion (89%). In parallel, about half of students in similar area was commencing sex at mean age of about 17 years and about half (47.2%) students were having more than one sexual partner though less than half (45.2%) of them were using condom during sexual practice. In the presence of earlier sexual onset and its consequences, there is no prior local evidence. Therefore the current study is aimed to calculate time of sexual debut and to determine its associated factors. Methodology: The study was conducted among 326 systematically selected day time regular Debre Markos preparatory (grade 11-12 th ) students. Data was collected by pretested Amharic (local language) version self-administered questionnaire. A coded questionnaire was entered by EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Time of sexual onset was estimated using the actuarial life table and Kaplan Meier survival. Log rank test was used to compare age of sexual debut across categories of categorical variable. Cox proportional-hazard model was used to calculate hazard rate and to determine independent predictors of outcome. Result: Above one third (37.7%) participants were commencing sex. The median time of sexual initiation was 16 years. Of those beginning sex, about 40.7% were not using condom during sex. In multivariate Cox proportional hazard model, predictors that are risk for younger age sexual onset were being female, rural resident, smoker, alcohol drinker, and watching pornography movies. Thus organizations working on school youths should further work to enhance age of sexual onset by giving especial attention for risk groups.

Level of knowledge, acceptability, and willingness to use oral fluid HIV self-testing among medical students in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania: a descriptive cross-sectional study

“…Almost two-thirds of sexually experienced participants had a sexual debut after 18 years old. This observation is contrary to a similar study done in the same setting in 2009 reporting early sexual debut with a mean age of 11 years [37], and findings among youths in different settings reporting early sexual debut [32][33][34][35][36][38][39][40][41].…”

Assessment of Early Sexual Initiation and Associated Factors among Preparatory School Students of FaggetaLekoma District, Awi Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2015

“…In this research 55 (20.4%) out of 270 study participants had early sexual initiation. This finding was higher than the finding from china 4.8% but lower than the findings from Nigeria Port Harcourt university undergraduate students 52%, Ghanaian youth 25%, Ethiopia Addis Ababa University under graduate students 27.4%, Gamo-Gofa 56.9%, Humera 63.3%, north east Ethiopia 51%, north west Ethiopia 37.7% and 2011 EDHS 29% [9] [11]- [19]. The possible explanation for this finding being higher than the finding from china might be due to the fact that students attending their class in china may have access to means of media and the family support provided towards students in china might be better than in Ethiopia but being lower than the findings in Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia might be attributable to sample size, study period, educational level of study participants.…”

“…where: n = the required sample size, Z α/2 = 95% confidence interval (level of significance) (1.96). P = Expected proportion of the population (proportion of early sexual initiation is 37.7% which is taken from a recent finding among preparatory school students in Northwest Ethiopia [9], and d = desired precision (the margin of error) (5%).…”

Assessment of the Role of Men in Family Planning Utilization at Edaga-Hamuse Town, Tigray, North Ethiopia

“…The higher contraceptive prevalence would be attributable to the high prevalence of knowledge and positive attitude towards the use and the higher proportion of couples who had discussion on family planning issues and more than 505 of the participants reported discussion about family planning issues and more than 70% of them both know contraceptive method and approve family planning method utilization. This finding is in contrast with a similar finding in Pakistan (34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). The majority (98.6%) of the respondents knew that FP is a service for the prevention of pregnancy .The proportion of men who reported current contraceptive knowledge and use was highest in age group 25-29, where 46% were contraceptive users.…”