ABSTRACT
Introduction: Risky sexual behaviours describe activities that increase the probability of experiencing negative consequences in the physical, psychological and social wellbeing of partners involved in sexual activities. Some common examples of risky sexual behaviours include early sexual debut, unprotected sexual intercourse, multiple sexual partners, anal sex, sex under the influence of drugs and sex trade work. These behaviours are termed risky because they increase the likelihood of contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and experiencing other unintended health and social consequences such as unwanted pregnancy and infertility.
Objective: To assess the knowledge, pattern, prevalence, determinants and consequences of risky sexual behaviours so as to provide enough information to drive sustainable interventions that benefit academia, proper policy and decision making, behaviour change and better health care delivery.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among undergraduates in the University of Benin, Benin City, from July 2018 to December 2019. The minimum sample size was calculated to be 689 using the Cochrane formula. Respondents were selected using multi-stage sampling technique comprising of four stages. A self-administered questionnaire adapted from the illustrative questionnaire for interviews-surveys with young people was the tool used for this study. The questionnaires were screened for completeness, coded, entered into the IBM SPSS version 22.0 software and analysed. The association between socio-demographic variables such as age, sex, religion, occupation, and socioeconomic status of respondents‟ parents/guardians and independent variables such as knowledge of risky sexual behaviours, was analysed to determine the significance of such associations in the undergraduate population. Multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression was carried out to further determine significant predictors of outcome variables such as the knowledge of risky sexual behaviour among undergraduates, prevalence of risky sexual activity and pattern of risky behaviour. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics and Research Committee, University of Benin.
Results: A total of 690 undergraduates participated in this study with a mean age (SD) of 20.42 (2.698) years. A higher proportion of the respondents, 209 (41.1%) had an overall good knowledge of RSBs. A minority of the respondents, 126 (24.8%), had overall poor knowledge of risky sexual behaviours, while 174 (34.2%) had overall fair knowledge of RSBs. There was a statistically significant association between age group, religion and overall knowledge of RSBs (P=0.032 and 0.043 respectively). About two-fifth, 196 (38.5%) of the respondents engaged in RSBs. A higher proportion of the respondents, 313 (61.5%), did not engage in RSBs. Respondents reported to have engaged in RSBs such as having multiple sexual partners, 47 (24.0%), cross-generational sex, 36 (23.5%), triolism, 29 (14.8%), transactional sex, 29 (14.8%), homosexualism, 22 (11.2%) and non-vaginal sex, (11.2%). Determinants of risky sexual behaviours observed included individual factors such as low self-esteem (37.2%, P<0.001) and Christianity (78.1%, P<0.001), social/environmental factors such as cigarette smoking (10.7%, P=0.056) and watching pornography (29.6%, P=0.002). The consequences of risky sexual behaviours reported were emotional drainage (48.2%), academic challenges (22.4%), sexually transmitted infections (16.8%) among others.
Conclusion: Less than half (41.1%) of the undergraduates had good knowledge of risky sexual behaviour. About two-fifths (38.5%) engaged in risky sexual behaviour. The patterns of RSBs reported were having multiple sexual partners, cross-generational sex, triolism, transactional sex, homosexualism and non-vaginal sex. The major determinants of RSBs were Christian religion, low self-esteem and no sex education. The consequence of risky sexual behaviour with the highest prevalence was emotional drainage (48.2%).
Keywords: risky sexual behaviour, cross-generational sex, transactional sex, triolism, multiple sexual partners, homosexualism
