Geographical variations of early age sexual initiation among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia: evidence from EDHS 2016

BACKGROUND: The early age of sexual initiation contribute a lot for various risks such as mistimed pregnancy followed by insecure termination, developing fistula and contracting sexually transmitted infections which are currently the major public health concerns for low-income countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to detect spatial clusters and identify factors associated with an early age sexual initiation of women in the reproductive age group. METHODS: We used a population-based nationwide representative Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) 2016 data.. A total of 12,033 respondents of reproductive age (15–49 years) women who had at least one event of sexual intercourse was retrieved and included for the analysis. Spatial cluster detection and autocorrelation analysis were also done to explore the patterns of early age sexual initiation. RESULTS: The median age at first sexual intercourse among respondents was 16 (±3.3) years and more than half (66.2%) had their first sexual intercourse before the age of 18 years. The spatial variations of the age of sexual initiation was nonrandom and clustered with a Moran’s I = 0.413 (P-value < 0.001). In addition, five significant spatial clusters were also identified. Moreover, the probability of starting sex at an earlier age was associated with the respondent’s residence, marital status, educational attainment and wealth index. CONCLUSION: This study found a higher proportion of an early age sexual initiation of women. Respondent’s residence, marital status, educational attainment and wealth index were significantly associated with early sexual initiation. The SaTScan analysis identified five statistical significant spatial clusters which indicate that there were geographical variations. Therefore, integrated interventions focusing on the identified high spot clustered areas are recommended to reduce early age sexual initiation.