Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40128696›Full record

ArticleBMC women's health2025

Modeling timing of sexual debut among women in Zimbabwe using a Geoadditive Discrete-Time survival approach.

Alphonce Bere, Innocent Maposa, Zvifadzo Matsena-Zingoni, Halima S Twabi, Jesca M Batidzirai, Geoffrey C Singini, Nobuhle Mchunu, Justine B Nasejje, Maureen Moyo-Chilufya, Oludoyinmola Ojifinni and 2 more

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Article in BMC women's health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Alphonce BereDepartment of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa.
Innocent MaposaDivision of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
Zvifadzo Matsena-ZingoniCenter for Biomedical Modeling, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Halima S TwabiDepartment of Mathematical Sciences, School of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi.
Jesca M BatidziraiSchool of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Geoffrey C SinginiDepartment of Mathematical Sciences, School of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi. geofreychiyuzga@yahoo.com.
Nobuhle MchunuBiostatistics Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Durban, South Africa.
Justine B NasejjeSchool of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Maureen Moyo-ChilufyaSchool of Health Systems and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Oludoyinmola OjifinniSchool of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Portia NevhungoniBiostatistics Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Durban, South Africa.
Alfred MusekiwaSchool of Health Systems and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEarly sexual debut has undesirable health consequences such as an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, mental health problems, pregnancy-related complications and death including abortion-related deaths. Despite a global decline in adolescent birth rates, Zimbabwe continues to face a high prevalence of underage pregnancies, highlighting significant early sexual debut among Zimbabwean adolescents. This study examined the spatial variation and the demographic and socio-economic determinants of the timing of early sexual debut among Zimbabwean women.

methodsData for 9,882 Zimbabwean women of reproductive age were drawn from the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS). We defined early sexual debut as having first sexual intercourse before the 18 years of age. A fully Bayesian geoadditive discrete-time survival model was used. Adjustments for unequal sampling probabilities were done using the provided survey weights.

resultsOur findings show that women with primary education (aOR = 0.62,95% Crl:0.47-0.81), secondary education (aOR = 0.25,95% Crl:0.19-0.33) and higher education (aOR = 0.06,95% Crl:0.04-0.09) had lower odds of early sexual debut than those with no education. In comparison to those with middle household wealth index, women with higher household wealth index (aOR = 0.83, 95% CrI: 0.71-0.98) had lower odds of early sexual initiation. On the other hand, women with lower household wealth index had higher likelihood of early sexual debut (aOR = 1.13, 95% CrI: 1.03-1.26) than those with middle household wealth index. The type of place of residence and birth year cohort did not have a significant association with the odds of early sexual debut. The hotspots of early sexual debut were in Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces.

conclusionTo mitigate early sexual debut in Zimbabwe, targeted interventions are essential in Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces as well as in the identified high-risk groups.

Indexed as

CoitusSexual BehaviorAdolescentAdultBayes TheoremFemaleHealth SurveysHumansSocioeconomic FactorsTime FactorsYoung AdultZimbabweDiscrete-time survival; bayesian estimationEarly sexual debutGeoadditive modelSpatial analysisZimbabwe

Identifiers

PMID40128696
PMCPMC11931742

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.