BACKGROUND: Young female internal migrants are highly vulnerable to risky sexual behaviors (RSB) which may result in serious health problems such as unintended pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. RSB includes early sexual debut (before 18 years), having multiple sexual partners, sex without a condom or inconsistent use of condom and sex under the influence of substance use. This study aimed to assess the magnitude and the factors associated with RSB among sexually-active unmarried young female internal migrants in Burayu Town, Ethiopia.
METHODS: A cross sectional study design was used for the study. A total of 267 respondents was recruited into the study using a simple random sampling technique. A semi-structured interviews-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from the study participants. The collected data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epi data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS Ver.21 for analysis. Multiple logistic regression models were used to indicate the association between dependent and independent variables.
THE RESULTS: About 35% of the young female internal migrants had sexual debut before the age of 18 years; 64.4% had sex without condom or inconsistently used condom; nearly one quarter of the participants had multiple sexual partners, and 29.6% had sex under the influence of substance uses. The magnitude of RSB among the study participants was (79.1%). Sexting [AOR 3.47(95%; CI;1.10-11.94)], frequent engagement in social media [AOR 10.9(95%;CI;2.31-51.89)], feeling of embarrassment to buy condom [AOR 8.28(95%; CI; 2.10-32.62)], unfavorable attitude toward using condom for steady and loving relationship [AOR 5.72(95%; CI; 1.47-22.24)] were related with RSB while self-efficacy [AOR 0.15(95%: CI; 0.04-0.57)] to use condom and perceived risks of getting pregnant [AOR 0.05(95%; CI; 0.01-0.23)] were found to be protective factors.
CONCLUSION: The study found high levels of RSB among sexually-active unmarried young female internal migrants. This finding suggests an urgent need of intervention to promote safe sex among this group. Special attention and prompt interventions are needed to promote the use of condoms.
