An assessment of sexual behaviour and its health outcomes among female students of a tertiary institution on the Plateau, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Extant data suggest that negative consequences associated with sexual risk-taking are common in tertiary institutions worldwide and Nigeria is no exception.

Objective: To assess the sexual practices and health outcomes of risky sexual behaviour among the female students of a tertiary institution in north central Nigeria.
Methodology: This was a cross sectional study involving 400 female students of a tertiary institution on the Plateau. The subjects were selected from all the departments using a two-stage sampling technique. A pretested semi-structured self- administered questionnaire was used to obtain relevant information from the subject. Analysis was done using IBM-SPSS 22.0. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05.

Results: Sixty-four percent of the respondents had their first sexual experience at age 19-23 years. About 48% had multiple partners within the last six months of the research while respondent’s sexual partners were mostly male (98.8%). A large proportion (91.5%) of respondents practiced vaginal sex, with 6.2% practicing oral sex and 2.3% having anal sex. Only 23.1% used condom always and 38.7% of study participants did not negotiate for safer sex. The health outcomes included: unwanted pregnancies among 28.7% of them while abortion, STI and HIV were found in 28.7%, 28.2% and 16.7% of the respondents respectively.

Conclusion: Majority of the undergraduates in this study indulged in high-risk sexual behaviour with resultant adverse health outcomes of unplanned pregnancies, abortions and STIs.