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. 2012;7(7):e41700.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041700. Epub 2012 Jul 27.

Incidence and predictors of adolescent's early sexual debut after three decades of HIV interventions in Tanzania: a time to debut analysis

Elia John Mmbaga  1 , Frida Leonard, Germana Henry Leyna
Affiliations

Incidence and predictors of adolescent's early sexual debut after three decades of HIV interventions in Tanzania: a time to debut analysis

Elia John Mmbaga et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the incidence and predictors of adolescent's early sexual debut after three decades of HIV interventions in Tanzania.

Methods: In a cross-section study of adolescents aged 16-19 residing in Morogoro Municipality, information on socio-demographic, parental-and-peer communication, and sexual behaviors were collected. Cox-regression analysis was used to examine predictors of time to sexual debut.

Results: A total of 316 adolescents with mean age of 17.5±0.9 were recruited. Half (48.7%) of adolescent were sexually active with mean age at sexual debut of 14.6±2.3. Of these, 57.8% had sex before their 15(th) birthday with incidence of early sexual debut of 17.4/1000 person-years at risk. Adolescent family characteristics, peer pressure, alcohol use, parental and peer communication were key predictors of early sexual debut.

Conclusion: Parental and peer communication strategies works calling for efforts to increase its scope to reach all adolescents alongside promoting family stability and reducing adolescent alcohol consumption.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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