RESEARCH ARTICLE
Determinants of Risky Sexual Behavioral Practices among Teen-girls in Malawi
Kennedy Machira1, *, Beston Maonga1, Tobias Chirwa2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 13
First Page: 839
Last Page: 849
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-13-839
DOI: 10.2174/1874944502013010839
Article History:
Received Date: 26/5/2020Revision Received Date: 2/10/2020
Acceptance Date: 20/10/2020
Electronic publication date: 31/12/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
In Malawi, having multiple sexual partners and engaging in sexual intercourse without using condoms remain a sexual and reproductive health challenge among women. This has consequently increased morbidity and low productivity among women, especially in young women of the country. This paper examined the determinants of risky sexual behavioral practices among teen women in Malawi.
Methods:
The study used 2015-16 Malawi Demographic Health Survey with a weighted sample of 5263 women under 20 years. Both Bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were used to estimate factors influencing risky sexual behavioral practices among teen women.
Results:
The study found the existence of differential determinants to influence women’s conduct in having both multiple sexual partners and inability to use condom during subsequent sexual intercourses with partners other than spouses. For instance, education (complete primary, IRR=2.755, p<0.001 and complete secondary education, IRR=3.515, p< 0.001); teen motherhood status (IRR = 0.295, p< 0.001), unavailability of the health care services (IRR=1.043, p<0.05) among others positively determined having multiple sexual partners in Malawi among teen women. On the contrary, wealth status (medium, IRR=1.116, p<0.001; rich, IRR=1.194, p<0.001) reduced teen women’s behavior of not using a condom with partners other than spouses during sexual intercourse.
Conclusion:
The study asserts that in Malawi, there is an urgent need for advocacy programmes aimed at reducing sexual and reproductive health challenges among girls at primary school levels and upwards. Equipping the girls, at a community level, with basic knowledge and understanding about the dangers of practicing risky sexual behavior is fundamental for the enhancement of their socio-economic support.
