Increased sexual abstinence among in-school adolescents as a result of school health education in Soroti district, Uganda

Abstract

A school health education programme in primary schools aimed at AIDS prevention in Soroti district of Uganda emphasized improved access to information, improved peer interaction and improved quality of performance of the existing school health education system. A cross-sectional sample of students, average age 14 years, in their final year of primary school was surveyed before and after 2 years of interventions. The percentage of students who stated they had been sexually active fell from 42.9% (123 of 287) to 11.1% (31 of 280) in the intervention group, while no significant change was recorded in a control group. The changes remained significant when segregated by gender or rural and urban location. Students in the intervention group tended to speak to peers and teachers more often about sexual matters. Increases in reasons given by students for abstaining from sex over the study period occurred in those reasons associated with a rational decision-making model rather than a punishment model. A primary school health education programme which emphasizes social interaction methods can be effective in increasing sexual abstinence among school-going adolescents in Uganda. The programme does not have to be expensive and can be implemented with staff present in most districts in the region.

PIP: Since the first cases of AIDS were identified in Uganda in the early 1980s, an estimated 1.5-2.0 million of Uganda's 18 million inhabitants have been infected with HIV. The spread of HIV in Uganda is thought to have been exacerbated by poverty, a breakdown of health services, social disruption by civil war, a tendency toward multiple sex partners, women's low social status, and a relatively early commencement of sexual activity. A school health education program in primary schools to prevent AIDS in Soroti district of Uganda emphasized improved access to information, improved peer interaction, and improved quality of performance of the existing school health education system. A cross-sectional sample of students of mean age 14 years, in their final year of primary school, was surveyed before and after 2 years of interventions. The percentage of students who stated that they had been sexually active fell from 42.9% to 11.1% in the intervention group, while no significant change was recorded in a control group. These changes remained significant when respondents were segregated by gender or rural and urban location. Students in the intervention group tended to speak to peers and teachers more often about sexual matters. Overall study findings indicate that a primary school health education program which emphasizes social interaction methods can increase the level of sexual abstinence among school-going adolescents in Uganda.