John Sede
46 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue,
Athens 11528
Greece
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Introduction
Sexual intercourse among Malaysian adolescents is a major concern,especially with the worry of HIV/AIDS. Thisstudy was done to determine the prevalenceof sexual intercourse among secondaryschool students aged 12 to 19 years in NegeriSembilan, Malaysia.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional schoolsurvey conducted on 4,500 adolescentstudents based on a structured questionnaire.Data were collected using the self-administeredquestionnaire(translatedversion of the Youth Risk BehaviourSurveillance in Bahasa Malaysia).
Results:
The study showed that 5.4 percentof the total sample were reported to havehad sexual intercourse.The proportionamong male students who had had sex washigher (8.3 percent) compared with femalestudents (2.9 percent). The mean age atfirst sexual intercourse was 15 years. Onepercent of students reported that they hadbeen pregnant or had made someone elsepregnant.Adolescent sexual intercoursewas significantly associated with (1) socio-demographical factors (age, gender); (2)environmental factors (staying with parents);and (3) substance use (alcohol use, cigarettesmoking, drug use), even after adjustment fordemographical factors. The survey showedthat 20.8 percent of respondents had takenalcohol, 14.0 percent had smoked cigarettes,2.5 percent had tried marijuana, 1.2 percenthad tried ecstasy pills, 2.6 percent had triedglue sniffing, 0.7 percent had tried heroin, and0.7 percent had intravenous drugs.
Conclusion:
Prevalence of sexual intercourseamong Malaysian adolescents was relativelylow compared to developed countries.However, certain groups of adolescents tendto be at higher risk of engaging in sexual intercourse. This problem should be addressed early by targeting these groups of high risk adolescents.
Index of articles, click here.
John Sede
46 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue,
Athens 11528
Greece