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Predictors of High HIV/AIDS Risk Sexual Behaviors: Comparison Study among Cameroonian and Gabonese Youth Aged 15-24 years

Minet Tesfai Hadish,Jing Mao, Guilan Gong,Berhe Tesfai Hadish and Eyasu Habte Tesfamariam

Background: Cameroon and Gabon are among the most highly HIV/AIDS prevalent Central and West African countries with unwavering HIV epidemic. The spread of HIV, among youth in Gabon and Cameroon, is believed to be driven by unsafe heterosexual intercourse. However, no research has been done to investigate the predicting factors of risk sexual behaviors among the youth of the two countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the predicting factors of highrisk sexual behaviors among 15-24 aged youth from Gabon and Cameroon.

Methods: This study used nationally representative datasets from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of Cameroon (2011) and Gabon (2012). The study variables: non-spousal sex, multiple sexual partnerships, and paid sex were managed based on the MEASURE DHS online tools for HIV/AIDS survey indicators database. A total of 14,880 youth, of which 9511 (63.91%) from Cameroon and 5369 (36.08%) from Gabon were taken by probability proportional to size. SPSS version 22 was used to run a binary multivariate logistic regression.

Results: Of all the respondents, 67.9% of Cameroonian and 81.0% of Gabonese youth had history of sexual intercourse before the survey. Despite the difference by gender, 17.4% of Cameroonian and 21.3% of Gabonese youth had multiple sexual partners. Similarly, 33.9% of Cameroonian and 57.3% Gabonese youth reported non-spousal sex. On multivariate analysis, age, place of residence, educational level, religion, marital status, wealth index, occupation, comprehensive knowledge and attitude of respondents were significantly associated with non-spousal sex, multiple partnerships and paid sex. When comparing by gender, males were more likely to have high-risk sexual behaviors than their female counterparts in both countries.

Conclusion: The present study indicates that youth are at high risk to be contracted by HIV. Therefore, designing strategic plan focused on the sexual behavior of youth and investigating their self-protecting and health seeking behavior is crucial.