Background: Sexual behaviors of young people are becoming one of the critical social and major public-health concerns in recent years. The study aimed to examine social-cultural factors associated with risky sexual behaviours among young people in Remera and Gatsata sectors of Gasabo district of Rwanda.
Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that exclusively utilized quantitative approaches. The study was conducted in Gasabo district among young people between 15 and 25 years of age. A standardized, validated questionnaire for interviewing young people was adopted, contextualized to the Rwanda context and used. Data was entered in EpiData Entry Client version 4.6.0.2, cleaned and analyzed in STATA version 15.
Results: The study reports the prevalence of engaging in risky sexual behaviours among young people at 49%. Social cultural factors namely religiosity measured by regular church attendance (OR =3.23; 95%CI = 1.985- 5.282; P-Value = 0.0001) and perceived importance of religion (OR = 6.5; 95%CI = 2.269- 18.624; P-Value = 0.0001) were associated with risky sexual behaviours at bivariate level. Additionally, living with a father was protective against engaging in risky sexual behaviours (AOR = 0.16; 95%CI = 0.042-0.665; P-Value = 0.01) while alcohol consumption (AOR=5.22; 95%CI=2.02-13.46; P-Value = 0.001) and a previous history of having multiple girl/boy friends (AOR =2.40; 95%CI = 1.009-5.721; P-Value = 0.04) were positively associated with risky sexual behaviours.
Conclusion: The study findings suggest that young people engage in risky sexual behaviours and that several social cultural factors including religiosity, parental control, alcohol consumption and having multiple girl/boy friends are associated with risky sexual behaviours. Therefore, there is need for health promotion programs targeting young people to avert their engagement in risky sexual behaviours. Needless to say, such intervention should consider social cultural factors but also endeavor to be youth friendly.
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