Risky Sexual Behavior and Associated Factors among Grade 9-12 Students in Humera Secondary School, Western Zone of Tigray, NW Ethiopia, 2014

Introduction: About 1.7 billion people which is more than a quarter of the world's population were between the ages of 10 and 24, and 86% are living in less developed countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescent people as those between the ages of 10 to 19 years. Across the life span, adolescence is the time of greatest risk taking. Even though, adolescent risk taking can derive them to development, it more results in experiencing risky sexual behavior like contracting sexual transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy than disease. This age category were highly predominant in secondary schools in which government attention is very crucial. Objective: To assess, risky sexual behavior and associated factors among grade 9-12 students in Humera town, western zone of Tigray, NW Ethiopia. Methodology: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 422 participants. A structured, pretested and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Collected data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Crude and adjusted odds ratio with its confidence interval was used as measure of association and to assure stastical significance. Result: All of the respondent were included in the study. The overall prevalence of risky sexual behavior was 13.7% (95% CI: 10.6%, 16.8%) and it is predominant among the males. Factors like not living with family [AOR=3.22,95%CI:1.29-8.02], being male [AOR=17.17,95%CI:4.55-64.75], experiencing peer pressure [AOR=2.27, 95%CI:2.79-15.89] and not participating in any religious education [AOR=6.17, 95%CI: 2.24-17.16] were the factors that increase the odds of practicing risky sexual behavior and not exposed to pornographic movie is a factor that prevent [AOR=0.36,95%CI: 0.32-0.91] the odds of practicing risky sexual behavior among the students. Conclusion: Considerable proportion of students were engaged in risky sexual behavior. Sex, participation in religious education, living with parents, peer pressure and looking porno graphic movies were associated with risky sexual behavior. Any interventions that can affect the above risk factors may be helpful to protect adolescent’s health in school.