Revista de SIDA e investigación clínica

An Exploratory Study of the Relationship between Alcohol Use and Sexual Risk Behaviour among Students at the University of Kwazulu-Natal

Abstract

Mutinta Given

Background: The prevalence of sexual risk behaviour among South African university students is high. Alcohol consumption has been identified as one of the underlying factors to students’ sexual risk behaviour. There is a dearth of studies conducted on the relationship between students’ alcohol use and sexual risk behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between alcohol use and sexual risk behaviour among sexually active students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Methods: The study was underpinned by a quantitative research paradigm. A questionnaire designed to be completed by students without the intervention of the researcher was used. In the questionnaire, alcohol use was measured as use over the previous six months compared with instances related to engaging in penetrative sex and on the most recent incident of penetrative sex. In the context of this study, the concept sexual risk behaviour is used to imply not using condoms in the past six months with a new partner or having multiple sexual partners. The relationship between students’ alcohol use and sexual risk behaviour was determined by performing bivariate and multiple logistic regressions.

Results: There was statistical significant relationship between alcohol use and having multiple sexual partners among female and male students. Among males, failure to use condoms consistently with new partners was significant. This phenomenon was common among male students who frequently used alcohol in relation to engaging in penetrative sex (OR 0.74; CI, 0.00-2.07). Though there was no statistical significance, findings reveal that the risk of not using condom with new partners was twice higher among female students in particular among females who frequently used alcohol in relation to engaging in penetrative sex.

Conclusion: Findings in this study are in agreement with, and build on previous studies that related alcohol use to having multiple sexual partners. Failure to use condoms consistently was related to consuming alcohol in relation to engaging in penetrative sex. This experience was common both among female and male students who frequently used alcohol in relation to engaging in penetrative sex.