O-18: Sexual Behavior, Knowledge and Attitude of Young Adolescent in Nigeria

Background: Health information on adolescents, by contrast is not widely available in many developing countries apart from indicators on sexual and reproductive health collects by major international health surveys, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. Adolescents are a key target group for HIV and pregnancy prevention efforts, yet very little is known about the youngest adolescent: those under age 15. A new survey data from 12-14 years old in Nigeria are used to describe their sexual activity, knowledge about HIV/STIs and pregnancy prevention and attitude towards sexual and reproductive health, including sex education in schools education in schools. The study attempt to investigate adolescent sexual behavior in general. • To examine adolescent knowledge on STIs and HIV/ AIDS. • To find out adolescent attitude towards sexual activities, (Sexual and Reproductive Health issues). • To examine knowledge of sexual; and reproductive health among adolescent. Materials and Methods: The study use data from nationally- representative house-hold based survey from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on 12-19 years old. A first stage systematic selection of enumeration areas was made from a household. All 12-19 years old de facto resident in each sampled household were eligible for inclusion in the survey. Once the parent or caretaker gave consent, separate informed consent was then sought from the eligible under-age adolescent. This paper analyzes data for infrequently studied group of very young adolescent aged 12-14. Interviews were completed with 2500 respondent which fals within the age range of 12-14 years olds in 5 states of the federation in Nigeria namely Lagos, Ibadan, Ekiti, Abuja and Calabar. Results: The result shows that very young adolescent are already beginning to be sexually active and as such some believe their close friends are sexually active. They have high level of awareness but little in-depth knowledge about pregnancy and HIV prevention. Multiple information sources are used and also preferred by very young adolescents. Given their needs for HIV/ STIs and pregnancy prevention information that is specific and practical and considering that the large majority attend school where sex education is preached, school based sex education is particularly promising avenue for reaching adolescent under age 15.Conclusion: In the findings, it was discovered that the major reasons that many young adolescents have not received sex education is that it is not offered in their schools to this end there is a great need for development of programs and approaches tailored to reach out of school adolescents, given the high rate of schools dropout in many countries in Africa, and given a situation like Lagos and Ibadan where the proportion of who have ever been to school is still low. Program that provides sexual health information to young adolescent who are not attending schools may be channeled through multiple sources.