Monitoring trends in sexual behaviour among young people in Botswana, 2001-2008

The purpose of this article was to investigate achievements made with regard to sexual behaviour change among young people, particularly reductions in multiple sexual partnerships, non-condom use, and other risky sexual behaviours

The data used in this paper were derived from the Botswana AIDS Impact Surveys (BAIS) which were carried out to provide information on the topics related to HIV/AIDS. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Standardization procedure was used to observe changes in the selected sexual behaviours.

The results showed that there were declines in percentage of young people aged 15-24 who reported ever having sex; the percentage of young people who have had sexual intercourse before the age of 15; and the percentage of young people who reported the use of condoms at their last sexual intercourse. However on the downside, there were no achievements in the area of multiple sexual partnerships and the percentage of young people who have had sex with a non-marital, non-cohabiting sexual partner in the last 12 months.

It is apparent that although there are signs of positive changes achieved through the implementation of behaviour change interventions, there are still areas where efforts need to be intensified to achieve the desired results.