Abstract:
Background: - Adolescence sexual behavior is quickly emerging as a public health problem and
they were susceptible to engaging in risky sexual behavior due to perceptions of personal
freedom and their tendency to focus on the immediate, rather than long-term, consequences of
their behavior. Limited research has been done on adolescents particularly secondary school
student`s risky sexual behavior with different finding.
Objective:-This study was aimed at assessing the magnitude and factors associated with risky
sexual behaviors among secondary school students in Guduru district, Oromia, Ethiopia.
Methodology: - School based cross-sectional study was conducted on secondary school students
in Guduru district from March 4 to 8, 2019. Multistage sampling technique was used to get the
required sample size of 1236 study participants. A structured pretested and self-administered
questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered using EpiData version 3.1 and
analyzed by Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 22.Binary and multivariable
logistic regression analysis was used to see significance of association between the outcome and
covariate. Adjusted Odds ratios at 95% CI were computed to measure the strength of the
association between the outcome and the explanatory variables. P-value ˂0.05 was considered as
a statistically significant.
Results: - A total of 1181 students with 95.6% response rate were included in the study and 352
(29.8%); 95% CI: [27.2, 32.6] reported that they had initiated sexual intercourse. From those
who started sex, 240(68.2%); 95% CI: [63.6, 72.70] were involved in risky sexual behavior
(RSB). The mean age and SD of first sexual initiation were 17.49(SD±0.732) years. RSB is
associated with female respondents (AOR: 3.55, 95% CI: (21.6,7.84) , drinking alcohol
(AOR:2.98,95% CI: (1.27,6.97),perceive peer pressure (AOR:4.99 ,95% CI:(1.79,13.96),never
communicated with parents on sexual issue(AOR:9.58 ,95% CI: (3.53,25.94)were factors
significantly associated with risky sexual behavior.
Conclusion: - Among sexually active adolescents in secondary schools majority were involved
in risky sexual behaviors. Finding of the study indicated that interventions could be targeted to
the identified predictors to reduce or prevent RSB by focusing on awareness creation for parents,
school community and students on how to protect them from RSB.
