Abstract:
Background: Sexual activities among adolescents have been reported to be increasing
worldwide. Over the past decade, adolescent sexual and reproductive health concerns have
increasingly been on national agendas. Sexual debut on this period exposes adolescents to
various risks such as unprotected sex, early pregnancy and STIs/HIV/AIDS. The aim of
this study is to assess the magnitude and factors associated with sexual debut among inschool adolescents in Asella town, Arsi Zone, Oromia Regional State, Southeast Ethiopia.
Methods: A school based cross-sectional study with qualitative and quantitative data
collections method was employed on a total of 362 students of randomly selected from
four schools of Asella town from May 30 to June 20 2012 using simple random sampling.
Sexual debut is the dependent variable and demographic, socio-economic and knowledge
are independent variables. The quantitative data were collected using structured selfadministered questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS version 16.0 through bi-variate and
multi-variable analysis and qualitative data were gained using in depth interview with
students and analyzed thematically.
Results: Three hundred sixty high school adolescents participated in the study. One
hundred nine (30.3%) of the participants had sexual debut at the time of the survey, of
which 210 (58.3%) were males. While age greater than 18 years AOR 2.7 (1.5, 5.1), living
apart from parents so that renting alone AOR 2.2 (1.0, 4.7), pushed by a friend to smoke
AOR 4.0 (1.5, 16.1) and have sex 4.5 (2.1, 9.2), spending spare time with boy/girl friend
AOR 7.5 (2.3, 24.0) and watching pornography AOR 2.9 (1.2, 6.5) were positively
associated with sexual debut in the study area. Being female gender AOR 0.54 (0.29,
0.99), avoiding use of substances like alcohol AOR 0.26 (0.07, 0.92) and cigarette AOR
0.19 (0.09, 0.46), intention to delay sexual practice and communicating with fathers about
sexual matters AOR 0.35 (0.13, 0.94) was found to be protective against sexual debut.
Conclusion: One hundred nine (30.3%) of the respondents experienced sexual intercourse
which might predispose them to different sexual and reproductive health problems.
Increasing awareness about sexual and reproductive health problems by strengthening
youth friendly services and using IEC/BCC materials is recommended.
