Article Sidebar
Article Details
The entire contents of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use.
This journal content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
AIDS Prevention Programs and Sexual Behaviour Among Secondary School Adolescents in Delta State, Nigeria
Abstract
Objective: To examine the pattern of sexual behaviour of Nigerian adolescents and its possible determinants, so as to identify areas requiring emphasis in existing HIV/AIDS prevention programs
Design, Setting and Subjects:A questionnaire survey was carried out on 516 adolescent secondary school pupils in five urban centres in Delta State, Nigeria to obtain socio-economic and demographic data, and information about the level of HIV awareness, methods of prevention and sexual behaviour.
Results: Nearly all (94%) of the adolescents had heard about HIV/AIDS and knew that it is sexually transmitted. Despite this, 69% of them were sexually active at the time of the survey, and about one-third had multiple sexual partners, with less than 20% using condoms. Moreover, over half had engaged in casual sex in the preceding 12 months. Poverty and family instability were significantly associated with risky sexual behaviour.
Conclusion: Informing and educating young people about HIV/AIDS does not seem to be sufficient to motivate them to change their sexual behaviour. Consequently, AIDS prevention programs should place greater emphasis on encouraging abstinence, fidelity, reducing the number of sexual partners, the use of condoms, and economic empowerment of adolescents.
Key Words: HIV, AIDS, Sexual Behaviour, Adolescent, Prevention.
[Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2003, 20: 16-19]
