Assessment of Early Sexual Initiation and Associated Factors among Preparatory School Students of FaggetaLekoma District, Awi Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2015

Introduction: Almost half of the world’s population is concentrated under the age of less than 25 years. The highest number of this population is living in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa youths constitute 20% - 30% of this population. Early sexual initiation is common among young people, and it has several sexual and reproductive health consequences. So, the objective of this research was to assess the prevalence of early sexual initiation and associated factors among preparatory school students of FaggetaLekoma district, Awi zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2015. Methods and Materials: Institutional based cross-sectional study design with stratified sampling technique was used. Completeness of questionnaires was checked visually and data were coded and entered into Epi-Info version 3.5.4. and transported to SPSS version 16 software package for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with early sexual initiation at 95% confidence interval. Result: A total of 270 students were included in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 18.82 ± 1.91 years, of which 117 (43.3%) were females, and 156 (57.8%) were rural residents. Among the total students who attended their class within the study period, 55 (20.4%) students had early sexual initiation. The results of multivariable model revealed that age AOR = 4.38, 95% CI (1.75 - 10.94), grade AOR = 4.18, 95% CI (1.58 - 11.04), existence of a boy/girl friend OR = 8.56, 95% CI (3.16 - 23.14), parental supervision AOR = 0.20, 95% CI (0.04 - 0.94) and peer pressure AOR = 3.56, 95% CI (1.31 - 9.66) were found to be significantly associated with early sexual initiation in multivariable analysis with P-value < 0.05. Conclusion and Recommendation: The current study found that early sexual initiation is still the problem. Among those who had initiated sex early, most of them had sex within the past 12 months, most of them had sex with their boy/girl friends and majority of them did not use condom. Age, grade, existence of a boy/girl friend, parental supervision and peer pressure of respondents were factors affecting early sexual initiation in the study area. In order to reduce early sexual initiation in preparatory school students, stakeholders should prioritize to educate young peoples, couples, and parents about sexual and reproductive health issues.