Abstract

Introduction: Adolescents are engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors at an earlier age, often before they are developmentally ready to deal with the potential outcomes. The main objective of this research was to determine the level of early sexual debut and associated factors among high school adolescents in Legehida district between 15 February and 15 March/2015.

Methods: A quantitative school based cross-sectional study was employed among 406 randomly selected high school adolescents in Legehida district. Data was collected using a structured self-administrated questionnaire adapted from sexual and reproductive health questionnaires of World Health Organization. Data was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression with odds ratio along with the 95% CI to identify the predictors of early sexual debut.

Results: About 27.6% (95% CI=23.8-34.3) of respondents were initiated sex before the age of 18 years. The mean age at first sexual intercourse was 15 (±1.6) years. Living alone during high school education (AOR=9.6, 95%CI=6.3-28.8), having pocket money per month (AOR=2.34; 95% CI=1.40-3.91), having a boy/girl friend (AOR=2.53; 95% CI=1.51-4.25) and watching pornographic movies (AOR=6.65; 95% CI=2.35-18.88) were found to be significantly associated factors with early sexual debut.

Conclusion: A large proportion of high school adolescents were engaged in early sexual debut. Therefore, a targeted risk reduction intervention should be taken by adolescent themselves, their parents, school communities and all other concerned bodies of the district.

Keywords: Sexual debut; Adolescents; High school; Predictors; HIV/AIDS; Ethiopia