Trends and country-level variation in age at first sex in sub-Saharan Africa among birth cohorts entering adulthood between 1985 and 2020.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Debuting sexual intercourse marks exposure to pregnancy or fatherhood and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), sexual debut varies according to cultural, religious, and economic factors, and encouraging delay has been a longstanding component of behavioural HIV prevention strategies. Age at first sex (AFS) is routinely collected in national household surveys, but data are affected by reporting biases, limiting utility to monitor trends and guide sexual health interventions.

Methods

We collated individual-level data from nationally-representative household surveys to analyse timing and national trends in AFS in 42 SSA countries. We used a log-skew-logistic distribution to characterize the time to AFS in a Bayesian spat

SUBMITTER: Nguyen VK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9167540 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature