Risky sexual behaviors among Malay adolescents: a comparison with Chinese adolescents in Singapore.
Ethn Health
; 24(4): 395-404, 2019 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28669217
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Malays, with majority of the individuals being Muslim, form the largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia. This region is experiencing a rising incidence of HIV infections. Due to circumcision and prohibition of sex outside marriage, being Muslim was argued to be a protective factor against sexually transmitted infections (STI) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). However, Malay adolescents were found to be more likely to contract chlamydia and gonorrhea than non-Malay adolescents in Singapore.DESIGN:
Using a cross-sectional survey, we examined and compared safer sex knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy, and sexual behaviors of 248 sexually active Malay adolescents with 384 Chinese adolescents aged 16-19 years in Singapore. Poisson regression, adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics, was used for modeling each dependent variable. Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained.RESULTS:
On multivariate analysis, Malay adolescents were more likely to report marginally unfavorable attitude towards condom use (aPR 1.21 CI 1.00-1.48) and significantly lower confidence in using condoms correctly (aPR 1.24 CI 1.05-1.47) than Chinese adolescents. They were also more likely to report significantly younger first sex age (aPR 0.98 CI 0.96-1.00), never use of condoms for vaginal sex (aPR 1.32 CI 1.16-1.49) and anal sex (aPR 1.75 CI 1.11-2.76) and non-use of contraceptives at last sex (aPR 1.30 CI 1.17-1.45) than Chinese respondents. Malay males were less likely to buy sex (aPR 0.56 CI 0.37-0.85), but they reported higher likelihood of inconsistent condom use with female sex workers (aPR 2.24 CI 1.30-3.87).CONCLUSION:
Malay ethnicity was associated with unfavorable condom use attitude and lower self-efficacy in using condoms, which was consistent with risky sexual behaviors such as non-use of condoms. Future research should use mixed methods to explore and identify cultural influences to these behaviors.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Risk-Taking
/
Sexual Behavior
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Safe Sex
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Ethn Health
Journal subject:
CIENCIAS SOCIAIS
/
SAUDE PUBLICA
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Singapore