Sexual patterns and practices among undergraduate students

Abstract Introduction Young people are potentially likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and this may be worse in the absence of adequate knowledge. These risky sexual behaviors potentially bear grave consequences on their lives and future. Objective The study assessed sexual preferences and practices as well as the knowledge of safe sexual practices and practice of risky sexual behavior among undergraduate students. Methods This is a cross sectional study in which the sexual patterns and practices among undergraduate students were accessed with the aid of a structured tested interviewer administered questionnaire. 751 undergraduate students from four different tertiary educational institution. Information on their demographic characteristics, sexual preference and patterns, knowledge and practices of safe sexual practices and risky sexual behavior were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Data analyzed with IBM SPSS version 25Descriptive statistics such as: mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentages, graphs and charts was used to summarize the result. Level of significance set at p<0.05. Results The respondents were young people with ages between 14 to 39years with a mean age of 20.9years. A higher proportion (55.1%) are female and 44.1% are male. Most of the respondents (97%) are single, 2% of were married, and 1% divorced or separated. Of sexual preference, majority of them (83.8%) preferred heterosexual relationship, 14.6% homosexual relationship, and 1.1% consider themselves bisexual. At age 20years, 85.6% of respondents have attained sexual debut. About a quarter (26.6%) have ever engaged in anal sex, 22.9% practice oral sex, 16.5% reported ever having group sex, while only 3.4% always practice anal sex. As many as 88.4% of respondent claimed to have knowledge of safe sex with sources of information comprising of parents, friends, media, health workers, family planning clinics, and community pharmacy store. Media is the largest source of knowledge and family planning contributed the least. Among the sexually active respondents, 33.5% have never used condoms and only 22.9% of them always used condoms. 73.5% of all sexually active respondents were practicing casual sex and a quarter of them (25.2%) engage in alcohol, cocaine or other illicit drug use prior to sexual intercourse. Conclusions A significant proportion of young people have preference for homosexual relations. various forms of potentially risky sexual behaviors are also common among these young people. Their sexual preferences must be respected and they must be provided with adequate knowledge to ensure safe practices. The media in all forms provides a good platform for dissemination of information to at risk young people. Disclosure No