Early Sexual Initiation and Associated Factors among Debre Markos University Students, North West Ethiopia

Background: Sexual activities during adolescence have been characterized as dynamic and constantly changing, and it has an impact on reproductive life of young peoples, which is related to the increased susceptibility to HIV transmission, unwanted pregnancy and its complications when the sexual activities are unprotected. So, the objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of early sexual initiation and its associated factors among Debre Markos University students, North West Ethiopia, 2014. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study design was conducted among 273 Debre Markos university students. Study participants were selected by stratified sampling technique and self- administrated questionnaire was distributed to collect information. EpiData version 3.1 was used for data entry and SPSS version 16 was used for analysis. To identify factors associated with sexual initiation, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression with 95 % Confidence interval was used. Results: From 260 respondents, 116(44.6%) had sex prior to the data collection period, while 144(55.4%) had never had sexual intercourse. Almost two third (64.7%) of respondents start sexual intercourse during the age range of 16-19 years old. The mean and standard deviation for the age at first sex was 18.28 and 2.04 years respectively. Factors which were significantly associated with early sexual initiation (< 18 years old) were; being female (AOR=5.7, 95%CI=1.16-27.72), lack of discussion on sexual and reproductive health issues (SRH) with their mother (AOR=, 95%CI= 1.23-41.5) and cigarrate smoking (AOR=7, 95%CI=1.06-46.92). Conclusions: Early sexual initiation was high. Factors which were associated with early sexual initiation were being female, lack of discussion on SRH with mother and cigarrate smoking. So, awareness creation for both male and female young peoples through the use of religious leaders, school teachers and parents on sexual and reproductive health issues is important. Young peoples should be encouraged to discuss with their parents on SRH through the use of reproductive health centers and emphasis should also be given for adolescents who use drugs like cigarrate smoking.