Mental Health and Risky Sexual Behaviour among University Of Ghana Students
Date
2017-07
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
Background: Young people aged 10-24 years form the larger proportion of Ghana‟s population; with the majority being sexually active, and are exposed to adverse health outcomes. Among the young age group, undergraduate students in the university are faced with various challenges on campus including stress, risky sexual behaviour and use of drugs. Although a major public health concern, only few studies have examined mental health as a catalyst to risky sexual behaviour among young people.
Objective: To determine the association between mental health and risky sexual behaviour among University of Ghana students.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using quantitative method. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic characteristics, level of knowledge on mental health and risky sexual behaviour of participants‟. The Beck‟s Depression Inventory tool was adapted to assess the mental health status of the students.
A multi-stage stratified sampling procedure was used to select 682 students from the University of Ghana, main campus. A simple random sampling technique with probability proportional to size was used in the sampling process, to compute for the number of students to be used. 9 out of 13 halls were randomly selected and this was followed by a systematic selection of room numbers of the selected halls.
Sampling interval was computed and every 5th room was selected for each hall. Also, one student was chosen at random from selected rooms.
The Pearson‟s Chi-square test was used to examine association between demographic characteristics, knowledge on mental health, assessment of mental health status and risky sexual behaviours of participants. Data entry was done using SPSS version 21 and data were analyzed using frequencies, bivariate and logistic regression in STATA version 14.0.
Results: The study comprised of 51.3% males and 49.7% females with a mean age of 21.13 years (SD= 2.4). The study found out that about 367 (53.8%) forming the majority of the students had limited knowledge on mental health. Moreover, students experienced different forms of mental health; 159 (23.7%) were stressed, 62 (9.3%) were anxious and 59 (8.8%) were depressed.
About 338 (49.6%) were engaged in risky sexual behaviours, and more male than female students were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours. A multivariate analysis showed a significant association between mental health and risky sexual behaviour.
Conclusion: Mental health is associated with risky sexual behaviour. There is the need to intensify mental health education among students to enable early detection and management.
Description
Thesis (MPH)
Keywords
Mental Health, Risky Sexual, Students, Behaviour