Premarital Sexual Practice and Associated Factors among Preparatory School Students in Jimma Town, Oromia Region, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Premarital sexual practice increases adolescents risk for infection with HIV and other STDs. Adolescents who begin early sexual activity are more likely to have high-risk sex or multiple partners and are less likely to use condom. Objective:The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of premarital sexual practice and associated factors among preparatory school students inJimma town.Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 532 preparatory school students inJimma town from March 13-25, 2015 and data was collected using self-administered questionnaire.Descriptive statistics was used, mean and standard deviation for continuous variables and frequency for categorical variables. Logistic regression with 95% confidence intervals was used to determine independent predictors of premarital sexual practice and p-value less than 0.05 was to declare statistical significance.Results:Of; 523 study participants, 21.0% (63.6% males and 36.4% females) reported having practiced premarital sexual intercourse. The mean age at first sexual intercourse was 16.3 with SD of (±1.7) and 17.2 with SD of (±1.1) years for males and females, respectively. Being age ≥18 [AOR(95% CI)=3.8(1.6, 9.2)], living away from parent [AOR(95% CI)=6.6(1.9, 23.7)], khat chewing [AOR(95% CI) =9.8(3.5, 27.6)], peer pressure [AOR(95% CI)=3.1(1.3, 7.5)] and being dissatisfied with parental connection[AOR(95% CI)= 3.3(1.1, 9.9)] were significantly associated with premarital sexual practice.Conclusions and recommendations: From this, we concluded that there is a high prevalence of premarital sexual practices among students. Therefore, Intervention that emphasizes different domains of the high risk factors [substance abuse like khat, peer pressure] and protective factors [increase student-parent connection] in an integrated manner may be the most effective strategies.