Secondary School Adolescents' Perception of Risk in Sexual Behaviour in Rural Community Of Oyo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Background: Adolescents' low perception of risk associated with sexual behaviour has been identified as one of the reproductive health problems contributing to teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Objective: The study aimed at involving adolescents in school-based health promotion activities as a strategy to improve their perception of risk in sexual behaviour.
Method: A quasi-experimental design was adopted for this study using intervention and control groups. This was done during a six months school-based participatory peer-educators' health promotion activities in selected secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. The schools were randomly allocated the intervention and control status. The intervention group was exposed to the health promotion activities, pre and post intervention data were analysed for comparison.
Results: Results showed statistically significant improvement in the perception of risk in sexual behaviour among adolescents in the intervention group compared with the control group (P< .05). About 60% of the adolescents in the intervention group were able to perceive danger in having many sexual partners compared with 34% in the control group. There was no statistically significant effect of gender on perception of risk in sexual behaviour (P> .05). This implies that among the adolescents in the intervention group who perceived danger in having multiple sexual partners, level of perception was the same for both males and females.
Conclusion: Based on the outcome of the study, it was recommended that adolescents' active participation in health promotion activities should be encouraged.

Keywords: Adolescents, perception of risk, sexual behaviour, active participation, health promotion.