Multiple Sexual Partnership and Perception of Risk of HIV Infection among Out-of-school Youths Aged 15-24 in Cameroon: A Short Communication

Abstract

Cameroon has a high concentration of out-of-school youths. Therefore research relating to out-of-school adolescents and HIV/AIDS is imperative. The aim of the study was to investigate the perception of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and its association with multiple sexual partners among out-of-school youths in Kumba, the Southwest region of Cameroon. A cross sectional study was adopted using a self-administered pretested questionnaire to collect data from a multistage probability sample of 405 consenting (208 male and 197 female) out-of-school youths, aged 15-24 years in July 2013. Chi square statistics were calculated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 at the level 0.05. Only few out-of-school youths, 84 (20.7%) perceived themselves at high risk of contracting HIV. Of the sexually active respondents, the majority, 129 (57.3%) reported having had multiple sexual partners in the last one year before this study, and 62 (27.7%) reported having multiple concurrent sexual partners at the time of this study. Sexually active respondents who agreed that having multiple sexual partners is a sexual risk behaviour were less likely to have had multiple sequential sexual partners in the one year preceding this study than those who disagreed (p=0.022). Out-of-school youths manifested low perception of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, with youths having low perception, likely to engage in multiple sexual partnerships, and therefore are at high risk of HIV/AIDS transmission. Targeted programs towards out-of-school youths should focus more on promoting safe sexual practices.