Drinking alcohol raises the chance of premarital sex by four folds among secondary school adolescent students in Jima Arjo, Southwestern Ethiopia, 2018: a school-based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Premarital sexual practice is sexual intercourse performed before formal marriage. Pre-marital sexual practice increases adolescents’ risk for having multiple sexual partners, (sexually transmitted disease) STDs, and unintended pregnancy. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess the prevalence of premarital sexual practice and associated factors among secondary school (9–12 grade) students in the Jima Arjo district. METHODS: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among adolescent students from May 1st to 15th using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select study participants. The collected data was cleaned and entered into(statistical package for social science) SPSS version 20. Factors associated with the pre-marital sexual practice were identified by multiple logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: The over all premarital sexual practice in this study area was 24.4%. Being alcoholdrinker(AOR[95%CI] = 3.78[1.49,22.08]),havingaboy/girlfriend(AOR[95%CI] = 5.07[3.74,26.47]), (being male) (AOR[95%CI] = 2.9[1.78,37.8]); urban residence (AOR[95%CI] = 6.44 [1.95,25.84]). CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that a significant proportion of adolescent students in this study area practiced premarital sex. Being male sex, urban residence, using alcohol use and having a boy/girlfriend significantly affect premarital sexual practice. Therefore, school and community-based sexual health education, and communication need to be intensified to reduce premarital sex and further health consequences.