IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pgph00/0006687.html

Time to first sexual experience and its predictors among young women (15–24 years) in Zambia: Evidence from 2024 Demographic and Health Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Emmanuel Musonda
  • Peter Mumba
  • Robert Zulu
  • Sibongile Namayawa
  • Milika Sikaluzwe
  • Bwalya Bupe Bwalya
  • Million Phiri

Abstract

Early sexual experience among young women increases the risk of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and adverse psychosocial and health outcomes. Examining the timing to first sexual experience is very vital in informing sexual and reproductive health policies and interventions aimed at reducing the health risks among young women. However, there is limited recent evidence in Zambia, particularly studies utilizing nationally representative data such as the 2024 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the determinants of time to first sexual experience among young women in Zambia. Secondary data from the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS 2024) was used in the study. A weighted sample of 5,833 young women was considered in the study. Kaplan–Meier curve, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to establish the median age at first sexual experience and identify determinants of time to first sexual experience, with statistical significance set at p

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanuel Musonda & Peter Mumba & Robert Zulu & Sibongile Namayawa & Milika Sikaluzwe & Bwalya Bupe Bwalya & Million Phiri, 2026. "Time to first sexual experience and its predictors among young women (15–24 years) in Zambia: Evidence from 2024 Demographic and Health Survey," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0006687
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0006687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0006687
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0006687&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pgph.0006687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0006687. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: globalpubhealth (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.