Awareness, acceptability, and use of female condoms among university students in Nigeria: implications for STI/HIV prevention
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Charles I. Tobin-West
,
Omosivie Maduka
Abstract
Background: Most university students in Nigeria are sexually active and engage in high risk sexual behaviors. The aim of this study was to assess the acceptability and use of female condoms in the context of HIV prevention in order to provide basic information that can stimulate female condom programming to promote sexually transmitted infection and HIV prevention among youths in tertiary institutions.
Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out among 810 undergraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt from October to November 2011, using a stratified sampling method and self-administered questionnaires.
Results: Most of the students, 589 (72.7%) were sexually active; 352 (59.7%) reported having just one sexual partner, while 237 (40.3%) had multiple partners. The mean number of sexual partners in the past six months was 2.2±0. Consistent condom use was reported among 388 (79.2%) students, 102 (20.8%) reported occasional usage, while 99 (16.8%) did not use condoms at all. Only 384 (65.2%) of the students had ever been screened for HIV. Although 723 (89.3%) were aware of female condoms, only 64(8.9%) had ever used one due to unavailability, high cost, and difficulty with its insertion. Nevertheless, 389 (53.8%) of the students expressed willingness to use them if offered, while 502 (69.4%) would recommend it to friends/peers.
Conclusion: This study highlights significant challenges in the use of female condoms among university students. These include unavailability, high cost, and difficulty with insertion. Therefore, deliberate efforts using social marketing strategies, appropriate youth-friendly publicity, and peer education must be exerted to provide affordable female condoms and promote usage; such efforts should target vulnerable youths in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
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©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Frontmatter
- Editorial
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- Original articles
- Prevalence of health risk behaviors and their associated factors among university students in Kyrgyzstan
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- Dyslipidemia and hyperinsulinemia in children and adolescents with chronic liver disease: relation to disease severity
- A cross-national study to compare the knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of sexually transmitted diseases and the sexual risk behaviors of Latino adolescents
- University students and the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Uganda: The Crane Survey
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- Sexual behavior of in-school adolescents in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria: a comparative study
- Health profile of urban adolescent girls from India
- Age of first reported sexual experience among U.S. soldiers
- Prehypertension and associated factors among university students in the Philippines
- School-based intervention to promote healthy nutrition in Sousse, Tunisia
- Awareness, acceptability, and use of female condoms among university students in Nigeria: implications for STI/HIV prevention
- Clustering of risk factors in the smoking habits of schoolchildren in Sousse, Tunisia
- Self-esteem in adolescents with chronic physical illness vs. controls in Northern Russia
- Gender differences in the mental health literacy of young people
- Case reports
- An adolescent with chronic giardiasis mimicking anorexia nervosa
- Treatment of refractory substance-induced psychosis in adolescent males with a genetic predisposition to mental illness
- Book Review
- A clinical handbook in adolescent medicine. A guide for health professionals who work with adolescents and young adults
