Assessment of pre-marital sex and its associated factors among rift valley university college students, jimma campus, south west Ethiopia, 2018

Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescent people as those between the ages of 10 to 19 years. By nature these age groups are the age of experimentation and exploration associated with a range of risky behaviors, including risky sexual behaviors. Pre-marital sex as risky sexual practices can lead student adolescents to acquisition of STIs and un-intended pregnancy. However there is paucity of information in prevalence of pre-marital sexual practices and it factors in private higher institutions particularly to the study site. Therefore this study is aimed to assess the prevalence of pre-marital sex practices and associated factors among Rift valley university students, south western Ethiopia 2018. Methods: An institution based cross sectional study was conducted at Rift Valley University Jimma campus from March to April 2018. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Systematic random sampling technique was employed to select a total of 264 respondents in this study. The data were entered into EPI info version 3.5.3 and transferred to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were done. A P-value <0.05 was considered to determine the statistical significance of the association between factors and outcome (pre-sexual practice). The Odds ratio was also used to determine the presence and the degree of association between the outcome and independent variables. Results: Out of 264 aimed samples, 260 involved in the study and yielded a response rate of 98.5%. The prevalence of pre-marital sexual practice was 43.8%. Living status, AOR=3.8CI (1.91, 7.52) and substance use, AOR=4.67(2.59, 8.46) were found to be independent predictors of pre-marital sex among students. Conclusion and recommendations: Pre- marital sex practice among students was found to be high. Living status and substance use were independent predictors of premarital sex in students. Jimma zone health bureau should strengthen addressing in community and family involvement in adolescent health and substance use habit.