International articleReproductive health risk and protective factors among youth in Lusaka, Zambia
Section snippets
Setting
The setting for the study is Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. Located in southern Africa, Zambia is a landlocked country covering an area of approximately 753,000 square kilometers. The 1998 population was estimated at just under 10 million persons [4]. Approximately 45% of the country’s population resides in urban areas, primarily in the mining areas of the Copperbelt province and Lusaka [4]. Forty-five percent of Zambia’s population is under age 15 years, and persons ages 10–24 years (the
Results
The mean age of both male and female respondents was 17.9 years. Just under one half (46%) of respondents were currently in school (54% of males and 40% of females), including 86% of 10–14 year-olds and 52% of 15–19 year olds. Most respondents (84%) were single/never married, with marriage being more common among females (22%) than males (7%). Just over one-third of respondents reported living with both of their biological parents, another 11% reporting living with one or the other of their
Discussion
The findings of the present study are consistent with prior research in indicating that sexual and reproductive health-related behaviors of youth in Lusaka are influenced in important ways by a myriad of factors. Some of these are characteristics of adolescents themselves, while others are characteristics of the environment in which they are embedded. This poses a significant challenge for HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. Because of the sizeable number and diverse nature of factors influencing
Limitations
Several limitations of the study should be noted. First, the study was based on self-reports of behaviors, and the data are thus subject to reporting errors/bias. Secondly, it is possible that using personal interviews to gather the data as opposed to self-administered questionnaires may have further contributed to reporting error. Thirdly, because the data are cross-sectional in nature, in some cases the direction of causal relationships between variables cannot be determined. Prospective
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by field support funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development/Africa Bureau provided to the FOCUS on Young Adults Program/Pathfinder International under Cooperative Agreement No. CCP-A-00-96-90002-00.
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