Sexual debut among young women in Kenya aged 15-24 years

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the socio-economic factors closely associated with adolescent age at first sex by using the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2008/9. The main objective of the study is to explore if there is any association between education, religion, economic status, exposure to mass media and sexual debut among adolescents aged 15-24 years. The dependent variable age at first sex was used to measure sexual debut and the independent variables included; education, religion, household wealth quintile, exposure to mass media. Another key independent variable that was taken into account was place of residence. The study sample is 3511 adolescent women aged 15-24 years obtained from the overall survey sample of 8,444 women aged 15-49 years. This was analysed using life table survival analysis to compute median age at first sex and bivariate and multivariate analysis using Cox hazard regression to establish factors associated with early sexual debut. Descriptive analysis shows that 61.9% of the 3511 adolescents aged 15-24 were already sexually experienced as at the time of the survey. The median age at first sex debut was 16.88 years. The median ages at first sex supports previous studies that, rural residence; Nyanza region; no education; lower wealth quintile; exposure to mass media influence early sexual debut. Results of bivariate and multivariate analysis do not support these earlier studies but were consistent with recent studies. Variables showing a significant bivariate association with early sexual debut were: primary and at least secondary education, middle and upper wealth quintile and non-exposure to mass media. Variables showing a significant bivariate associated with delayed sexual debut were: rural residence, Central and Coast regions, Protestants and other Christians. In tke multivariate survival analyses, variables significantly associated with early sexual debut were: primary and at least secondary education, middle wealth quintile, Rift Valley and North Eastern region and variables associated with delayed onset of sexual activity were: no religion and Muslim. Both bi variate and multivariate depict Education, wealth quintile and region to be significantly , associated with early sexual debut. The findings suggest that there is need to address adolescent reproductive health needs in school and conduct further qualitative research to get insights about the change in pattern in sexual activity among adolescents and the dynamics in regional variation.