Factors predicting condom use among undergraduates in a Nigerian university

Abstract

The progress being made in the mitigation of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria notwithstanding, the country still ranks among the top three countries bearing HIV burden worldwide. Various studies and existing statistics on HIV/AIDS epidemiology have revealed that young people are at the centre of the infection as they do not only account for the highest proportion of people living with the virus but also are at the centre of new infections. Adolescents and young adults in tertiary institutions due to the modalities on which the institutions operate are at higher risk of contracting the deadly virus as well as other sexually transmitted infections. This is not unconnected with the perceived freedom that tertiary institutions confer on adolescents and young adults who might probably be breathing the air of freedom from their parents stiff monitoring for the first time. Condoms, when used consistently and correctly have been proven effective not only in protection against unplanned pregnancy which is a major consequence of premarital sex but also against contracting sexually transmitted infections of which the highly dreaded HIV is a major one.This study investigated predictors of condom use among undergraduates in the University of Ibadan. The descriptive survey research design was used in the study in which a multistage sampling technique was used to select 1077 accommodated undergraduates in the university. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire with reliability of 0.87 on the Cronbach alpha scale while Focus Group Discussion and In-Depth Interview Guides were also used to collect qualitative data to validate the data from the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using t-test and simple regression at 0.05 alpha level. The result revealed that there is significant difference in condom use by gender among the respondents with male respondents reporting higher mean in condom use. Findings also indicated that condom use is predicted by STIs anxiety, pregnancy anxiety, condom availability, nature of sexual relationship and risk perception. Findings also implications for public health expert in their continuous quest to reduce HIV prevalence among young people in designing interventions that will address critical issues pertaining to condom use as revealed by the study. Moreover, the need to make condoms available and accessible to members of the population was also recommended.

Keywords: Condom Use, STIs, Pregnancy, Risk Perception, Anxiety, Availability