Risky Sexual Behaviour among Sexually Active Never Married Ghanaian Women: A Latent Class Analysis (LCA)

Abstract

This paper examined risky sexual behaviour patterns among sexually active never married Ghanaian women using the 2008 GDHS data. The LCA technique was utilised to identify categories of women based on their risky sexual behaviours. Age at first sex, multiple sexual partnerships, condom use at first and last sexual intercourse, lifetime sexual partners and alcohol consumption at last sex were used for the categorisation. Preferably, a 3-class model that reflected “low risk takers,” “risk takers” and “high risk takers” was selected. Generally, the sexual behaviours followed similar patterns. For instance, the conditional probability for unprotected sex at first sexual intercourse was 0.34 in Class 1-“low risk takers”, 0.84 in Class 2-“risk takers” and 0.86 in Class 3-“high risk takers”. Latent multinomial logistic regression model was used to examine the predictors of class membership. Older women were more likely to be classified in both the “risk takers” and “high risk takers” classes.