Predictors of High HIV/AIDS Risk Sexual Behaviors: Comparison Study among Cameroonian and Gabonese Youth Aged 15-24 years

Abstract

Background: Cameroon and Gabon are among the most highly HIV/AIDS prevalent Central and West African countries with unwavering HIV epidemic. The spread of HIV, among youth in Gabon and Cameroon, is believed to be driven by unsafe heterosexual intercourse. However, no research has been done to investigate the predicting factors of risk sexual behaviors among the youth of the two countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the predicting factors of highrisk sexual behaviors among 15-24 aged youth from Gabon and Cameroon.Methods: This study used nationally representative datasets from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of Cameroon (2011) and Gabon (2012). The study variables: non-spousal sex, multiple sexual partnerships, and paid sex were managed based on the MEASURE DHS online tools for HIV/AIDS survey indicators database. A total of 14,880 youth, of which 9511 (63.91%) from Cameroon and 5369 (36.08%) from Gabon were taken by probability proportional to size. SPSS version 22 was used to run a binary multivariate logistic regression.Results: Of all the respondents, 67.9% of Cameroonian and 81.0% of Gabonese youth had history of sexual intercourse before the survey. Despite the difference by gender, 17.4% of Cameroonian and 21.3% of Gabonese youth had multiple sexual partners. Similarly, 33.9% of Cameroonian and 57.3% Gabonese youth reported non-spousal sex. On multivariate analysis, age, place of residence, educational level, religion, marital status, wealth index, occupation, comprehensive knowledge and attitude of respondents were significantly associated with non-spousal sex, multiple partnerships and paid sex. When comparing by gender, males were more likely to have high-risk sexual behaviors than their female counterparts in both countries. Conclusion:The present study indicates that youth are at high risk to be contracted by HIV. Therefore, designing strategic plan focused on the sexual behavior of youth and investigating their self-protecting and health seeking behavior is crucial.

Socio-Demographic, Economic and Psychological Correlates of Risky Sexual Behaviour Among Sexually Active Young People in Nigeria

“…That suggests a high tendency to keep a few trusted sexual partners with whom young females believe they can continue to enjoy unprotected sex (Odimegwu & Somefun, 2017), thinking they are safe. Previous studies also revealed that unmarried youths who are not into marital vow have greater chances of engaging in risky sexual behaviour (Chawla & Sarkar, 2019;Hadish et al, 2017;Wendland et al, 2018). However, what passes for risky sexual behaviour could be examined through the lens of marital status as suggested by this study in which ever-married young people were more likely to not use protection (during their first and last sexual intercourse) probably because of their desire for children.…”

“…Despite the vast amount of studies geared towards investigating and understanding risky sexual behaviours among young people, understanding the processes linking risky sexual behaviours with its predictors remains limited in Nigeria. Previous studies have identified numerous factors associated with risky sexual behaviours among young people including age and gender, with men having higher odds of engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse (Abosetugn, Zergaw, Tadesse, & Addisu, 2015;Ganczak, Czubinska, Korzen, & Szych, 2017;Hadish, Mao, Gong, Hadish, & Tesfamariam, 2017;Noubiap et al, 2015;Sambisa, Curtis, & Stokes, 2010;Sekoni & Soyanwo, 2014;Shek, 2013). Besides, the relationship status of an individual has also been found to significantly predict sexual behaviour; single people have higher chances of having unprotected sex (Ganczak et al, 2017;Hadish et al, 2017).…”

“…Previous studies have identified numerous factors associated with risky sexual behaviours among young people including age and gender, with men having higher odds of engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse (Abosetugn, Zergaw, Tadesse, & Addisu, 2015;Ganczak, Czubinska, Korzen, & Szych, 2017;Hadish, Mao, Gong, Hadish, & Tesfamariam, 2017;Noubiap et al, 2015;Sambisa, Curtis, & Stokes, 2010;Sekoni & Soyanwo, 2014;Shek, 2013). Besides, the relationship status of an individual has also been found to significantly predict sexual behaviour; single people have higher chances of having unprotected sex (Ganczak et al, 2017;Hadish et al, 2017). Studies have also found that the use of alcohol and substances like tobacco and marijuana is associated with risky sexual behaviour among young people (Chawla & Sarkar, 2019;Wendland et al, 2018;Yaw Amoateng, Kalule-Sabiti, & Arkaah, 2014).…”

Knowledge on mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and sexuality and fertility desires among people living with HIV in North-Central, Nigeria

“…Perceived health status was assessed by asking the question “how is your health in general?” very good was scored 3, good was scored 2 and fair was scored 1 [ 13 ]. Sexuality was analysed as sexual behaviour which was categorized as risky and non-risky sexual behaviour [ 14 ].…”

Unprotected Sex among Sexually Active Unmarried Young Adults: A Pariah or Preemptive Incidence

“…Pressing among these factors is the population knowledge of HIV/AIDS knowledge [16,26]. The extent of knowledge on the implications of the deadly virus have been attributed to exposure to mass media, social media, utilisation of voluntary counselling unit, sociocultural, drug and illicit substance abuse economic and demographic factors [5,9,[27][28][29][30].…”