Influencing Factors of Unsafe Sexual Practices among Dodoma ...

Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (2012) Vol 4, No 1,Influencing Factors of Unsafe Sexual Practicesamong Dodoma University Students, TanzaniaL. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,TanzaniaAbstract: Most of the university students are at the age of adolescenceand young adulthood. This age group is sexually active and relativelyhigher HIV prevalence rate of transmission than general population. Theyouth including students are as they tend to have shorter relationshipswith many partners before marriage (THIS 2005). The main intention ofthe present study is to know the influencing factors of unsafe sex andcondom use practices among the university students in Tanzania.A purposive sampling method was applied in selecting number ofrespondents to represent the different faculties and courses from theuniversity. The students from each course were selected randomlyregardless of their year of study. The researcher used structuredquestionnaire as a tool for primary data collection.Conclusions may be summed up as; Most of the students age group isbelow 30 years and staying in the hostels. University hostels influencingthe chances of having sexual intercourse among the students. Accessibilityof the partners and university environment influencing them to have sexualintercourse in the university hotels. Poverty is the one of the cause forunsafe sex among the girl students due to high costs of food and otherdaily expenditures, making them to choose sexual partners for money.Alcohol and peer group influencing students towards unsafe sexualpractices. Nearly half of the students are not using condoms with theirregular partner.1. IntroductionHIV infection is heavily concentrated among young peopleof 15-24 years of age (UNAIDS, 2008). There are some factorsknown to influence people to have heterosexual intercoursesuch as socio- economic, cultural, gender inequalities, andalcohol consumption and so on. These are considered toinfluence risky sexual practice despite the awareness onehas on protecting oneself from acquisition of HIV. Thesuccessful prevention efforts include the preventing high risksexual behavior, distributing and promoting condoms,276

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,Tanzaniadiagnosing and treating sexually transmitted illnesses(Durant R, H, and Sander J, M 1998).Most of the university students are at the age ofadolescence and young adulthood. This age group is sexuallyactive, exploring and practicing sexual freedom from parents’ties at their homes. The nature of camp-like residence andinteractions with their age mates and students at differentsocio-economic status influence sexual accessibility andindulgence. Because of the environmental factors influencingtransmission of the epidemic, it is likely that the universitiesand other higher learning institutions of similar nature havea relatively higher HIV prevalence rate than the generalpopulation.The Tanzania HIV/AIDS indicator survey (THIS, 2005)observed that HIV prevalence rises with the increase ofeducation and wealth. The youth including students are at ahigher risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDSas they tend to have shorter relationships with manypartners before marriage. (THIS, 2005).Hence, by 2004, onwards most of the private andpublic universities in Tanzania had established technicalHIV/AIDS sub-committees and implementing someHIV/AIDS intervention programs (Mbilima, 2004).Therehave been several campaigns, seminars through differentcommunication media to advocate the HIV/AIDS preventionin communities including universities, but the risky sexualintercourses still exist. The existence of risky sexualintercourse is reflected through emergence of pregnancies,abortions and sexually transmitted diseases amongstudents.Rationale of the StudyHigher learning institutions producing most skilled andproductive manpower to any nation but unfortunatelyuniversity students are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDSepidemic. Though most of the university students are awareon HIV/AIDS but there is a large gap between awarenessand real sexual practices. The main intention of the presentstudy is to know the influencing factors of unsafe sex and277

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,Tanzaniacondom use practices among the university students inTanzania.Description of the Study AreaThe study was conducted in University of Dodoma whichis located in Dodoma municipality. Dodoma municipality isthe administrative capital of Tanzania. The Dodoma region isthe central part of the country. The university was selectedfor the purpose of present research according to conveniencebased on distance and financial limitation of the researcher.2. University of DodomaThe University of Dodoma (UDOM) is located atChimwaga area about 8 kilometers from East of Dodomatown center. The University is within Dodoma District andcovers an area of about 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares). Thesite has a very prominent view as it is situated in hilly area.It is designed to a comprehensive university which will trainand produce human capital in the major professionals foreducational development.Study PopulationThe study was involved with undergraduate male andfemale students of the University of Dodoma and the totalunder graduate student population of the university consist14,173 students.Sampling Procedure and sizeA purposive sampling method was applied in the study inselecting number of respondents to represent the differentfaculties and courses from the university. This purposivestudy enabled the researcher to use judgment to select agiven number of respondents that were considered to be thebest in evenly answering the research questions andobjectives. The students who were willing to participate intothe study were randomly selected regardless of their year ofstudy. The selected students were given the questionnaire toadminister in presence of the researcher for clarificationwhen need arose. Two hundred students were selected from278

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,Tanzaniathe whole student population of the Dodoma University forthe present study.Data Collection MethodsData collection as a process of gathering specificinformation aimed at providing or refuting some facts(Kombo and Tromp 2006). The researcher used structuredquestionnaire as a tool for primary data collection anddocumentary review for collecting secondary data.QuestionnaireQuestionnaire is a tool of gathering information by fillinganswers to printed questions by the respondents. Thequestionnaire is provided to the respondents who areexpected to read and write. The respondents have to answerthe questions on their own and multiple choices. (Kothari,2004).Pre -testing of the questionnaire was conducted for thepurpose of checking the weakness and ambiguity of thequestionnaires. Ten respondents were involved in testing thequestionnaires in order to prove its validity and reliability.3. Data Entry, Cleaning, Storage and AnalysisThe data was collected and analyzed through thestatistical package for social sciences software (SPSS) aftergrouping similar categories, coding and making summaries.Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentageswere computed.279

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,TanzaniaTable 1: Distribution of the Respondents by AgeAge Frequency Percent16-2014(7.0)21-30181(90.5)31-405(2.5)Total200 (100.0)Source: Field data, 2010The above table depicts that most (90.5%) of therespondents age group is between 2 1 -30 but only few (7.0%) of the respondents age between 16-20 years and theremaining (2.5%) age group 31 to 40 years. This data revealsthat predominant number of the respondents age below 30.This shows that university students in Tanzania rightly AIDSprevention programme target groups, especially the diseaseusually disproportionately affects those in between the ages20-30 (TACAIDS, 2005).Table 2: Distribution of Respondents by Place ofResidencePlace ofResidency Frequency PercentUniversityhostel 193 (96.5)Off campusMissingsystemTotalSource: Field data, 20106 (3.0)1 (0.5)200 (100.0)The table-2, illustrates the details of living or residencearrangements of the university students. Most of the280

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,Tanzaniastudents (96.5%) staying in the hostels, while only very few(3%) of the respondents living in off campus. But onerespondent did not give any response for this question.Table3: Place of Residence correlation with having SexualIntercourseResidencyHaving sexual intercourse Total (%)YES (%) NO (%)University hostel 157(97.5%) 36 (2.5%) 193(100%)Off campus4(66.6) 2 ( 33.3) 6(100)Total 161( 100) 38(100) 199(100)Source: Field data, 2010It is evident from the table 3, place of the residenceinfluences the chances of sexual intercourse among thestudents. The study shows that most (97.5%) of therespondents who are staying in the university hostels havingsexual intercourse but very few (2.5%) of the students whoare living in the hostels don’t have sex. Those students whostay off campus have less chances of having sex (66.6%)compared to university hostels.University campuses constitute a potentially fertilebreeding ground for HIV/AIDS. University campus bringsmany students together in close physical proximityCombined with the ready availability of alcohol together withdivergent levels of economic resources these circumstancescreate a very high risk environment from an AIDSperspective. (Kelly and Otaala, 2002).281

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,TanzaniaTable 4: Influencing factors of sexual intercourse among universityhostel studentsInfluencing factors Frequency PercentAccessibility ofpartner 72 (36%)Hostel environmentAvailability of alcoholPeer group influence66 (33%)32 (16%)30 (15%)200 (100.0)TotalSource: Field data, 2010The table-4 illustrates the influencing factors of sexualintercourse among the students in university campus. Fromthe previous table, most of the students staying universityhostels and hostels fueling sexual intercourse amongstudents. This table mainly focusing influencing factors ofsexual intercourse among the students .Nearly one third(36%) of the respondents reported that accessibility of thepartners in the university campus increases the chances ofhaving sexual intercourse among the students and anotherone third of the respondents said university environmentinfluencing them to have sex, availability of alcohol (16%),peer influence (15%) also influencing to have sex amonguniversity campus students.Table5: Distribution of the Respondents by SponsorshipSponsorship Frequency PercentHESLB 168 (84.0)Private 32 (16.0)Total 200 (100.0)Source: Field data, 2010The details furnished in the table-4 reveal that most(84%) of the respondents are financed by the Loan Board for282

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,Tanzaniatheir education and the remaining students (16%) arefinanced by themselves. Respondents who are not gettingany loan facilities, those students facing hardships duringtheir education. Many female students are likely to engagesex with others in exchange of money.Table 6: Distribution of the Respondents by EmploymentEmployment Frequency PercentEmployed16 (8.0)Not employed184 (92.0)Total 200 (100.0)Source: Field data, 2010The table above shows that majority (87%) of therespondents are unemploys But very few(13%) of thememploys .Hence many students are facing difficulties dueto limited source of income in running their lives. Sometimesthe interaction between the two groups of employed andunemployed may ignite sexual relations due to accessibilityand need to complement each group in terms of financialexchange for sex.Table7: Distribution of the Respondents by Poverty as a Causeof Unsafe SexPoverty is the cause Frequency PercentYES12462.0NO7336.5Missing response31.5Total 197 98.5Source: Field data, 2010As shown in the table 7, majority (62.0%) of therespondents reported that poverty is the causes for unsafesex. But more than one third (36.5%) of the respondents283

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,Tanzaniadisagreed with this statement. Poverty is provoking manygirl students to choose instant partners in the town. Hence,Poverty significantly influences the spread of HIV/AIDS(Lugalla, J. 1995). This study did not explore as to whetherthe low economic status of an individual directly influences aperson to practice unsafe sex.Table -8, Distribution of the Respondents by causes of choosingpartners in exchange of moneyCauses Frequency PercentHouse holdresponsibilities8 2Girls need expensivethings for grooming8 47Food and dailyexpenditures8 51Total 24 100Source: Field data, 2010It is seen from the table 8 majority (51%) of therespondents reported that high costs of food and other dailyexpenditures making university girl students to choosesexual partners for the money. While less than half (47%) ofthe respondents opined that girls need expensive things togroom, but very few of the students (2%) said that girlstudents should perform house hold responsibilities likeproviding money to their parents and paying school fees totheir brothers and sisters. It is clear that when girl studentsare economically poor they are easily influenced towardsunsafe sexual affairs in terms money.284

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,TanzaniaTable9: Distribution of the respondents by Alcoholism as a causeof unsafe sex among studentsResponse Frequency PercentUnconsciousness ofmind lead them to 12 50.0take poor decisionsIt stimulate sexdrive and increase 6 25.0confidenceMeeting place for theparties 625.0Total 24 100.0Source: Field data, 2010It is found from the table 9 that a half (50%) of therespondents reported that their unconscious mind leadingthem to practice unsafe sex , due to alcohol consumption .one quarter of the respondents (25%) agreed that itstimulates sex drive and increases confidence after takingalcohol. Another quarter of the respondents (25%) said thatalcoholic places are meeting places for the universitystudents and as well as prostitutes. This is in line with thestudy alcohol use before sexual episodes increases thelikelihood of engaging in unsafe sex especially due to itsinhibitory effects (Plant, 1990). (Hunt, 1989).Table10: Distribution of the Respondents by the opinion of PeerGroup Influence in Behavior ChangePeer groupinfluence Frequency PercentYES 176 88.0NO 23 11.5Missing response 1 0.5Total 199 99.5Source: Field data, 2010The study reveals that majority (88.0%) of therespondents agreed that their behavior is changing as aresult of peer group influence. But the remaining of (11.5%)them disagreed that their behavior is not changing due tothe influence of the university students. Parents influence285

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,Tanzaniayounger adolescents, but as they get older they ultimatelyshifts from parent to peer (Norman & Romer, 1998). Peerinfluence has a more profound impact on adolescentbehavior than parental influence ( Onyango, 2004).Table11: Distribution of the Respondents by Condom Use withRegular PartnerResponse Frequency PercentYES 89 44.5NO 109 54.5Total 198 99.0Missingresponse2 1.0Total 200 100.0Source: Field data, 2010The table above depicts that more than a half (54.5%) ofthe respondents reported that they don’t use condom withtheir regular partner. The remaining (44.5%) respondentssaid that they use condom with their regular partner. Hence,majority of the respondents are at higher risk according topresent study because most of the students having multiplepartners.Table12: Distribution of the Respondents by Reasons of Not UsingCondom with Regular PartnerReasons of notusing condoms Frequency PercentNot availablecondoms14 12.8My partner refusedthe condom26 23.8Less satisfaction 21 19.2I trust my partner 44 40.3Other reasons 4 3.6Total 109 100.0Source: Field data, 2010The table 10 furnishes the reasons of not using condomswith their regular partners as below. More than one quarter(40.3%) of the respondents not using condoms with theirpartner due to trust, partner refused the condoms (23.8%),286

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,Tanzanialess satisfaction (19.2%), not available condoms (12.8%) andother reasons (3.6%).4. ConclusionsThe study reveals that most of the students age groupbelow 30 years. University students in Tanzania rightly AIDSprevention programme target groups, especially the diseaseusually disproportionately affects those in between the ages20-30 (TACAIDS, 2005). Most of the students are staying inthe hostels. It is evident from the study, university hostelsinfluencing the chances of sexual intercourse among thestudents. Those students who stay off campus have lesschances of having sex compared to university hostels.Majority of the students agreed that accessibility of thepartners and university environment influencing them tohave sexual intercourse.Most of the students are financed by the Loan Board fortheir education .Respondents who are not getting any loanfacilities, those students facing hardships during theireducation. Majority of the students are unemploys.Sometimes the interaction between the two groups ofemployed and unemployed may ignite sexual relations due toaccessibility and need to complement each group in terms offinancial exchange for sex. Majority of the respondentsaccepted that poverty is the cause for unsafe sex. Poverty isprovoking many girl students to choose instant partners.Majority of the respondents reported that due to high costsof food and other daily expenditures making university girlstudents to choose sexual partners for money. While lessthan half of the respondents opined that the reason behindto choose partners for money is girls need expensive thingsto groom. It is clear that when girl students are economicallypoor they are easily influenced towards unsafe sexual affairsin terms money.Half of the respondents agreed that their unconsciousmind lead to unsafe sex due to alcohol consumption andalcohol stimulating sex drive and confidence. Majority of therespondents reported that their behavior is changing as aresult of peer group influence. Peer influence has a more287

Influencing factors of Unsafe sexual practices among Dodoma university students,Tanzaniaprofound impact on adolescent behavior than parentalinfluence (Onyango, 2004) .A half of the respondents reported that they don’t usecondom with their regular partner. Hence, majority of therespondents are at higher risk according to present studybecause most of them having multiple partners. Main reasonof not using condoms with their regular partner is due totrust, refused by their partner, less satisfaction and notavailability of condoms in the university campus.ReferencesDurant R, H, and Sander J, M (1998) Sexual behavior andContraceptive risk Taking Among Sexuality AdolescentFemale. Journal of Adolescent Health Care.Hunt, C. W. (1989) “Migrant Labour and SexualityTransmitted Disease”. AIDS in Journal of Health andSocial Behaviour.Kombo, D.K.& Tromp, D. L. A. (2006). Proposal and ThesisWriting: An Introduction Nairobi: Paulines PublicationsAfrica.Kothari, C. R. (2004), 2 nd edition Research Methodology.Methods and Techniques, New Age International (p)Limited Publishers Delhi, India.Kelly, M.J. & Otaala, B. (2002), UNESCO Regional StrategicPlan for HIV/AIDS Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: AConsultancy draft Report submitted to UNESCO/BREDA,Dakar, Senegal.Lugalla, J. (1995), A Study of Urban Poverty and SurvivalPolitics. Urbanization and Urban Poverty in Tanzania.Mbilima, M. and Mvungi, A. (2004), Study of AfricanUniversities Response to the Threat of HIV/AIDS in 12Global HIV/AIDS Initiatives Countries, Country Report,Tanzania: Submitted to the Association of AfricanUniversities, Accra, Ghana.Norman, S. B. & Romer, D. (1998), Early sexual initiation:The role of peer norms 102Official Home Page of Avert.Retrieved April 14, 2007 from http://www.avertorg/aids_Nigeria.288

L. Madan Mohan, Dodoma University,TanzaniaOnyango, F. (2004), Adolescents Perspectives on the SocialConsequences of Premarital Sex and Pregnancy UrbanKenya Paper Prepared for Presentation at the AnnualMeeting of the Population Association of America.1-3April 2004, Boston Massachusetts.UNAIDS.(2008), “Report on The Global AIDS Epidemic”http:// www.unaids.org/en/knowledge centre/HIVData Global Report 2008.THIS, (Tanzania HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey), 2003-2004(2005). “Tanzania HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey”, Dar esSalaam, Tanzania.31-67pp.Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS, 2005). A NewLook at the HIV and AIDS Epidemic in Tanzania, Dar essalaam, Tanzania 5-15pp.289