Sexual risk behavior and health consequences among adolescents in Banepa Municipality, Kavrepalanchowk.

Thesis Report.

SUMMARY: Human sexuality plays a major role in everyone's life, regardless, whether we are young or old, man or woman, Nepalese or American, it is an integral part of what we do and who we are. The study "Sexual Risk Behavior and Health Consequences among Adolescents in Banepa Municipality, Kavrepalanchowk" aims to explore the common risky sexual practice of adolescents and the health consequences faced by them. Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in identifying the risky sexual behavior of unmarried adolescents studying in 7 different higher secondary level in Banepa municipality. Cluster sampling technique for the selection of study area and Simple random sampling for the selection of study unit was adopted. The study was carried upon the 270 randomly selected adolescents who were properly defined the terms and condition of research before administering Self -Administered Questionnaire. Sex ratio of 0.92(male/female) was found with 48.1% male and 51.9% female. Majority of respondents, 91.5% were from Banepa Municipality, Kavrepalanchok. The association between involvement in any form of sexual activity with demographic factors like gender, age of respondents and educational level was found statistically significant with p value 0.000, 0.035 and 0.018 respectively. Majority of the respondents in this study, 93.3% had access to internet and 66.75 of respondents used the means of communication for sexual information. Percentage of respondents having knowledge on sexual and reproductive health was significantly high. This study examined sexual risk behavior of adolescents that showed wide gap in the sector of knowledge and practice of sexual behavior. Although majority of respondents 64% had idea regarding contraceptives only 44% used it at the time of first sexual intercourse. This study shows adolescents were mostly involved in sexual activities due to watching porn movies. The findings indicate that there is an alarming level of sexually risk behavior among the study population. Mean age for the sexual intercourse was 15.92 years, 27% respondents were found with multiple sex partner and majority of respondents practiced sexual activities on monthly basis and had non-regular sexual partner. 24% of respondents were forced for sexual activity of which majority 66.7% were forced by their girlfriend. These behavior put adolescents at the risk of physical, mental and emotional health consequences.70% respondents faced some form of health consequences. Burning of urination was the major physical health problem faced by 74.3% of adolescents involving in sexual activity. 37.1% of adolescents involving in sexual activity regret for having sexual relationship and 32.9% are depressed due to sexual relationship.42.9% respondents told that their educational performance decreased due to not having concentration in the study. Only 10% respondents in the study support premarital sex whereas 37.03% of respondents were involved in it. Among those who never had practiced any form of sexual behavior, 23.7% had planned to have sex before marriage. Majority of respondents practiced watching porn movies followed by masturbation due to peer influence. There is wide gap in the knowledge regarding sexual and reproductive health and practice of safe sex. There is persistent of alarming level of sexual risk behavior in the adolescents having unpleasant physical, mental and emotional health consequences A part of the population believe that if the matter of sexual health is not talked about, it won't happen, but it is sure that if it's not talked about, adolescents are curious and will experiment. Working together, educators and parents can develop plans of action to keep them safe and healthy. Key words: Sexual risk behavior, Health consequences, Adolescents