Prevalence and correlates of sexual intercourse among sexually active in-school adolescents: an analysis of five sub-Sahara African countries for the adolescent’s sexual health policy implications

Abstract Background Early and unprotected sex with multiple partners among adolescents carries a high risk of acquiring HIV infections, other sexually transmitted infections as well as high rates of teenage pregnancy. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has a higher burden of HIV/AIDS: the leading cause of deaths among adolescents. We estimated the prevalence and examined the correlates of sexual intercourse among in-school adolescents of SSA. The purpose is to inform the public health programs dedicated to tackling the burden of HIV/AIDS. Methods We did a secondary analysis of the Global School-based Student Health Surveys (GSHS) datasets pooled from five SSA countries Benin, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, and Tanzania. Our current analysis included a sample of 15,318 in-school adolescents. The primary independent variables were ever had sexual intercourse and sex with multiple partners, while the dependent variables were smoking cigarettes, alcohol use, use of marijuana and amphetamine, and parental connectedness. We performed descriptive statistics, and multivariate logistic regression stratified by gender using SPSS Complex Sample Statistics. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant at 95% confidence intervals. Results Out of 15,318 participants, the overall prevalence of ever had sexual intercourse and sex with multiple partners were 43·5% (6670) and 20·9% (3204), respectively. In overall and across each country, male adolescents had a significantly higher proportion of sex with multiple partners than female adolescents, p < 0·001. The predictors of sexual intercourse with multiple partners in both male and females were smoking cigarettes, alcohol use, and use of marijuana and amphetamine. Female adolescents who smoked cigarettes and used marijuana had a significant likelihood of sex with multiple partners than male adolescents: [aOR 3.6, 95% CI: 2.6-5.1] vs [aOR 2.1, 95% CI: 1.7-2.7] and [aOR 2.4, 95% CI: 1.6-3.7] vs [aOR 1.9, 95% CI: 1·3-2·7], respectively. Conclusions Adolescents sexual intercourse and more especially sex with multiple partners was prevalent and strongly correlated with substance use. However, the correlation was higher among female adolescents than male adolescents. A customized public health intervention that targets multiple risk factors concurrently may benefit adolescents with clustering of sexual and non-sexual risk-taking behaviors.