Epidemiology of Sexual Behaviour with Risk of Sexually Transmissible Infection (STI) among Students in Africa: The Case of the University of Ouagadougou

Abstract

Objective: To study the sexual risk behaviors and their determining role in sexually transmissible infection (STI) and HIV among students of the University of Ouagadougou. Methodology: It was a descriptive and analytical single pass cross-sectional study from June 22 to July 21 2010 at the University of Ouagadougou. A cluster sampling in two stages was adopted to form a population of 762. Data were collected using a standardized written questionnaire completed by individual interview after informed consent. Results: The average age of students was 24.2 ± 2 years old for men and 23.7 ± 2 years old women. Singles represented 95.1% of students. The students were not scholarship grantees in 90.6% of the sample. Knowledge about STIs was average in 60.2% of cases. In total 33.65% of the students admitted to having had multiple sexual partners, 19.57% had sex with prostitutes, 34.62% had unprotected sex, 4% practiced sodomy without condoms and 3.1% of students had sex in group with one partner. In multivariate analysis, male gender was the determining factor associated with multiple sexual partner (OR = 3.30 95% CI = 2.19 to 4.95) and relations with prostitutes with an odds ratio of 16.13 (95 = 6.87% to 37.8%). The female gender was the determining factor associated with not using a condom with odds ratio of 1.5 (95% CI = 1.01 to 2.16). Conclusion: There are many risk behaviors for HIV transmission among students of the University of Ouagadougou. The urgent implementation of specific prevention programs to benefit this population is essential.