2014.ISDS.Abstracts.Final.pdf


ISDS Annual Conference Proceedings 2014. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
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ISDS 2014 Conference Abstracts

HIV Surveillance: Life Skills Education Programme 
among in-school Adolescents
Olubunmi Adeyemi*1, Olufunmilayo Fawole2 and Adedayo Adeyemi3

1Public Health Department, Abuja, Nigeria; 2Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, College of Medicine, Ibadan, 
Nigeria; 3Measure/National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Abuja, Nigeria

Objective
To assess the predictors of life-skills-based HIV/AIDS education 

on sexual behaviour among secondary school students in South West, 
Nigeria.

Introduction
Reduction in HIV transmission needs continuous, comprehensive 

and effective communication channels to disseminate messages that 
will sustain efforts to motivate adolescents to engage in a range of 
options to reduce the risk of HIV infection. Life skills education, an 
integral part of school-based AIDS programs that include sexual and 
reproductive health information, has been a timely prevention effort 
in schools.1 This has proven to be an effective method in delaying 
the onset of sexual intercourse, and among sexually experienced 
youth, in increasing the use of condoms and decreasing the number 
of sexual partners. Life skills are behaviors that enable individuals to 
adapt to and deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. 
The life skills approach is an interactive, educational methodology 
that not only focuses on transmitting knowledge but also aims at 
shaping attitudes and developing interpersonal skills. The main goal 
of the life skills approach is to enhance young people’s ability to 
take responsibility for making healthier choices, resisting negative 
pressures, and avoiding risk behaviors. Limited studies have been 
done on assessing life skills of adolescents in schools. Findings from 
this study will provide baseline for programmatic scale up.

Methods
A cross–sectional study design was used. A multi-stage sampling 

technique was used to select eight schools from four Local 
Government Areas (LGAs) within Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria. 
Knowledge of life-skills in HIV prevention and associated factors 
were assessed. Univariate analysis was done to generate proportions, 
tables and charts; bivariate was done with Mann-Whitney U test, and 
multivariate analysis was done with multiple linear regressions after 
transformation.

Results
A total of 1467 students were selected with a mean age of 14.2 1.7 

years. About half of the respondents were females (51.4%) and 
Christians (52.6%). Majority were in senior secondary class (66.3%), 
mostly from monogamous family (75.3%) and living with both parents 
(77.9%). About 14.1% of the total population had been exposed to 
sexual intercourse. The mean age at initiation was 15.2 1.9 years. 
Only about a quarter of the respondents in both groups rated their risk 
of having HIV/AIDS to be high. Most agreed that adolescents/ young 
people need life skills (69.3%), and the reason commonly stated was 
to enable them to know what is right. About half (50.3%) said they 
have heard about life building skills and the commonest source of 
information was from school (72.1%). The three most commonly 
identified life skills were communication (37.5%), decision making 
(32.4%), and goal setting (29.2%). Low proportion of respondents 
poorly demonstrated negotiation and communication components of 
life skills. The life skills improve with exposure to family life and 

HIV/AIDS education (B coefficient=26.28, p<0.001); increasing age 
(B=2.97, p=0.03); living in a monogamous family (B=11.45, p=0.03); 
having more than one sibling (B=29.54, p=0.03); having a trading 
mother (B=23.01, p=0.02); and having an artisan mother (B=25.47, 
p=0.03). However, living with either of the parents/guardian (B=-
29.71, p=0.001) and being in urban schools (B= -19.86, p<0.001) 
significantly decreases life skills ability of the respondents.

Conclusions
This study has shown that family life and HIV/AIDS education 

with some socio demographic factors might have contributed to the 
improvement of life skills education program. Efforts should be 
made to sustain the effectiveness of school based education programs 
especially in urban areas.2

Keywords
HIV Surveillance; Life Skills; in-school Adolescents

References

1) Liao W, Jiang J, Yang B, Zeng X, Liao S. A Life-skills-based HIV/
AIDS prevention education for rural students of primary schools
in China: What changed? What have we learned? Biomedical and
Environmental Sciences. 2010;23:409-19.

2) Fawole IO, Asuzu MC, Oduntan SO, Brieger WR. A school-based
AIDS education programme for secondary school students in Nigeria: 
a review of effectiveness. Health Education Research. 1999;14
(5):675-83.

*Olubunmi Adeyemi
E-mail: bumfaks2002@yahoo.ca    

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * (1):e100, 201