Sexual Behaviour and Contraceptive Use in Tertiary Educational Institutions: A Case Study of the University Of Ghana, Legon
Date
2008-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
The study was a cross-sectional study of students of the University of Ghana, Legan.
The objective was to determine sexual behaviour, knowledge and use of contraceptives
among these students.
The methods or techniq ues used included:
I) Focus group discussion involving students, heads of hostel, service providers and key
informants.
II) A cross-sectional survey of 507 undergraduate students was done using structured
questionnaire .
FINDINGS:
The fi ndings indicate that a substantial proportion (52%) of the students have ever had
sexual intercourse with the males (6 l.2%) outnumbering the fema les (38 .6%). The mean
age at first sexual experience is 18.7 years and the median age is 19 years. The mean ages
at first sex for the males and females are 18.4 years and 19.3 years re ~ pectivel y with the
median ages being 19 years and 20 years respectively. More males than females have
multip le sexual partners, and have had sex in the last 30 days.
The respondents who have ever been pregnant are 42 (15.9%) and 28 (66%) of these
pregnancies are aborted .
Level of awareness abo ut contraceptives was 100% with the male condom bei ng the most
commonly known (95.6%) and used method followed by the pill The students who have
ever used contraceptives were 92.1 % but only 41 .2% always used them.
Most (87.1 %) of the students have ever used a condom but of these. only 59 % always
use condoms during sexual intercourse with a new partner. The mean age at first condom use is 19.6 years. The minimum age at first sex is 8 years whiles the minimum age at first
condom use is 13 years meaning that, some students could be exposed to pregnancies and
STDs including HIV / AIDS . The female respondents who have never bought condoms are
about 4 times as many as their male counterparts. Although majority of the males (71 %)
and females (51 %) admit that contraceptives are affordable and accessible their use of
contraceptives was not consistent.
Logistic regression analysis revealed that, factors that are significantly re lated to
contraceptive use among students are: Being a male student, having benefited from sex
education programmes on campus as well as residing in a mixed sex Hall/hostel.
From these finding, it is recommended that the University authorities adopt a more
holistic approach in organizing sex education programmes for students paying attention
to culture and gender differences.