Sexual Intercourse among Female Students in Public High Schools, Khonsawan District, Chaiyaphum Province

Abstract

Background: Early onset of sexual intercourse among teenager is associated with lifetime prevalence of sexual partners, risk of exposure to sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy.

Methods: A cross-sectional study aimed to identify the prevalence and factors associated with sexual intercourse among female students from four public high schools in Khonsawan district, Chaiyaphum province, Thailand. The structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data between May and June 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic and multiple logistic regression analysis was then performed to compute adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI).

Results: The result showed that 640 respondents, the age range was 12-18 years. About 88 (13.75%) of respondents had history of sexual intercourse. Among sexually active respondents, 17 (19.32%) reported they had started sex before the age of 15 years. More than half (62.50%) of sexually active respondents reported that the main reason for initiation of sexual intercourse was falling in love and (35.23%) of them experienced their first sexual intercourse owing to sexual desire. In addition, only 50 (56.81%) of sexually active respondents reported that their partners used condom at recent intercourse. Multiple logistic regression indicated that significant factors associated with having sex were age > 15 years (ORadj =  4.83, 95%CI: 2.72-8.57, p < 0.001), did not live with parents (ORadj =  48.54, 95%CI: 3.62-650.45, p = 0.003), and ever used alcohol (ORadj =  8.78, 95%CI: 4.99-15.45, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: These fingdings suggest that interventions aiming to delay first intercourse may need to consider targeting aspects of  these associated factors.