Figure 9: Road Safety Compliance by gender

100

88

86

83

80

77

60

(%)

40

30

26

20

11

8

Males

0

Females

Seatbelt front

Seatbelt rear

Helmet bicycle

Helmet motorbike

4.8 SEXUAL HEALTH

Almost three quarters of all students were sexually active with significantly

more males than females (75% vs 70%).  The majority of students were 17

years or older when they first had sexual intercourse (Table 13).  A higher

proportion of female students (76%) were 17 years or older when they had

their first act of sexual intercourse in comparison to their male counterparts

(70%).  The number of different sexual partners in their lifetime differed

significantly between gender and across year in college with male students

having more sexual partners than females (Table 13) and third year students

having more partners than first or second year students.

Table 13: Age of sexual onset & No. of sexual partners in lifetime by gender

Males

Females

Total

Age at first sexual intercourse

%

%

%

Under 14

3.4

1.8

2.4

15 16 years

26.8

21.9

23.8

17 or older

69.8

76.3

73.7*

Number of sexual partners

1 3 people

58.0

71.3

66.1

4 5 people

14.6

13.7

14.1

6 or more people

27.4

15.0

19.9*

*Significant between gender (p<.01)

Students who were sexually active were asked to identify what method they

used to prevent pregnancy when they last had sexual intercourse. By far the

most common method was condom use (71%) followed by the

contraceptive pill (45%) (Table 14). One in twenty students (5%) reported

using withdrawal as a method to prevent pregnancy and a further 4% used

nothing.  Other methods such as natural family planning, cap, injection were

around or below 1%. 

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