Ethnicity, gender and sexual behaviour in Nigeria: an alternative explanation

Oluwaseyi Somefun, University of the Witwatersrand

While existing studies in demography and public health issues have acknowledged the role of ethnic differences, the influence of ethnicity on adolescent and young adult sexual behaviour has received limited or no research. A cross-sectional data of three Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) for the years 2003, 2008 and 2013 were used to examine the relationship between ethnicity and adolescent sexual reproductive health proxied by age at sexual debut, multiple sexual partners (MSP) and condom use at last sex of 10,787 females and 4,058 males. Multivariate analysis using proportional hazard technique was used to determine the relative risk of sexual activity among adolescent’s (15-19) and young adults (20-24) in each age group. Logistic regression was used to predict condom use at last sex and MSP among ethnic groups. A significant association was observed between ethnicity and the sexual behaviour of male and female adolescents.