Abstract

BACKGROUNDGlobally, more than 16 million adolescent girls give birth every year with additional 5 million abortions. Adolescent pregnancy has been associated with high maternal mortality rates in Nigeria. Therefore, this study was designed to assess sexual behaviour and contraceptive uptake among secondary school adolescents in an urban area in Nigeria.MATERIALS AND METHODSThe study was a descriptive cross-sectional study of students from twelve senior secondary schools in 2018. Respondents were interviewed using self-administered structured questionnaires. The questionnaire was pretested and analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0; descriptive data were presented as simple frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test was used for associations and the level of significance was set at p≤5%.RESULTSThe majority of the respondents (70.3 %) were within the age bracket of 13 to 16 years with a mean age of 15.95±1.43. Generally, there was 100% awareness of the methods of contraceptives by all, with 64.5% aware of condom usage as a method of contraception. The level of knowledge scored fairly (62.4%), and attitude was 48.9% amongst males and females who had responsibility for contraception. Peer pressure of 42.9% was stated as one of the major factors affecting the utilization of modern contraceptives.CONCLUSIONAwareness of contraception amongst adolescents was high. But with the level of knowledge identified, the government should ensure proper measures to promote sexual behaviour and uptake of contraception among adolescents in Nigeria.

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