title: Sexual behaviour, contraceptive practice and knowledge of reproductive biology among adolescent secondary school girls in Nairobi, Kenya.
abstract: One thousand seven hundred and fifty one adolescent secondary school girls aged between 12 and 19 years were interviewed by means of self-administered questionnaire to determine their knowledge on reproductive biology, sexual behaviour and its relationship to contraceptive practice in late 1986. 23.8% of all the girls had been or were sexually active at the time of the study. 94.5% of the sexually active girls had not or were not using any method of contraception; while the rest, i.e. 5.5% were using mainly unreliable or risky methods of contraception. 1.7% of the sexually active girls admitted to have been pregnant at one time and had sought abortion. Majority of the girls displayed profound ignorance and misinformation regarding their reproductive biology and contraception. Their mothers played a very minor role in imparting this knowledge, their sources of information being fairly unreliable. While 77.8% of the girls were against school girls having sexual relationships, 90.7% of them felt that all women (including school girls) should be given contraceptives to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Lema
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003267:Contraception; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D011897:Random Allocation; D012098:Reproduction; D012574:Schools; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population