Author(s)

Felix Essiben^1*, Chantal Didjo², Valère Mve Koh³, Meka Esther Juliette Ngo Um⁴, Christiane Nsahlai⁵, Pascal Foumane⁴

¹Yaoundé Central Hospital, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
²Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
³Yaounde Teaching Hospital, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
⁴Yaounde Gyneco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
⁵Essos Hospital Center, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Introduction: The substantial changes that occur in adolescence may lead to sexual behaviors that adversely affect their health. We have described sexual patterns in adolescents in various neighborhoods of Yaounde in order to underscore the sexual challenges that they face. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional descriptive study in District number V of Yaounde from August 1st to 31st 2018. To characterize their sexual lives, we surveyed 1800 adolescents between 10 and 19, and analyzed the data using SPSS version 25.0. Results: In our study, 1023 (56.8%) adolescents were female, and 777 (43.2%) were male. Most of the adolescents were between ages 18 and 19 years (25.4%), unmarried (93.1%), had a secondary level of education (81.9%) and lived with their families (87.3%). One-third of the adolescents (30.7%) were sexually active and 41.1% had multiple sexual partners. The average age of coitarche was 15.1 years. Among the females, 17.1% reported one prior pregnancy and 30.8% had one abortion. Most of the sexual encounters were heterosexual (82.6%) and 30.2% regularly used male condoms. 66.0% and 47.7% obtained information about sexuality primarily from social media and mass media, respectively. Conclusion: Sexual encounters in adolescents of District V of Yaounde were premature, mostly heterosexual and often unprotected. The consequences were an increased incidence of early pregnancies and abortions.

Adolescents, Sexual Behavior, Heterosexual Relationship, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Essiben, F. , Didjo, C. , Koh, V. , Juliette Ngo Um, M. , Nsahlai, C. and Foumane, P. (2019) Adolescent Sexual Behavior in an Urban Area of a Resource-Limited African Country, Cameroon. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 9, 923-935. doi: 10.4236/ojog.2019.96090.