Abstract:
Background: Premarital sexual practice increases adolescents risk for infection with HIV
and other STIs. 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, associated factors and
consequences of premarital sex among preparatory school students in Jimma town.
Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 532
preparatory school students in Jimma 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% Cl)=3.8(1.6, 9.2)], living away from parent [AOR(95%
Cl)=6.6(1.9, 23.7)], khat chewing [AOR(95% Cl) =9.8(3.5, 27.6)], peer pressure [AOR(95%
Cl)=3.1(1.3, 7.5)] and being dissatisfied with parental connection[AOR(95% Cl)= 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. Age less than eighty year, living
away from parent, khat chewing, peer pressure and being less connected with parent were
significantly associated with premarital sexual practice. 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
