Period-Cohort Effects Models for Sexual Debut in Namibia
Reproductive Health
30
Issue: 2
(11 - 2016)
Early sexual debut is often associated with a number of social challenges. However, the hazard and risk
factors of changing pattern of age at first sex have not been fully explained. This paper investigated the
period-cchort effects by fitting flexible time-to-event models of sexual debut using retrospective cross-
sectional data of the 2000 and 2006-7 Namibian Health and Demographic Survey, to establish individual
and structural effects, and simultaneously investigated spatial frailty effects, non-linear effects of age,
cohort and period on the timing of sexual debut among women. The hazard of sexual debut reduced as
the woman’s year of birth increased suggesting a generational effect. The North Eastern parts of
Namibia were associated with a higher risk of early sexual debut compared to all other regions.
Intervention strategies should be multifaceted and involve not only schools and communities but
individual family units as they have a bigger role to play in this regard.
Keywords: sexual debut, discrete time-to-event models, Namibia
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