| dc.description.abstract | Background: Improving safe sex negotiation among married women in sexual unions comes with
various benefits, including the reduction of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections and
sexual and reproductive health. I examined the relationship between safe sex negotiations among
married women in Uganda.
Methods: The study involved quantitative analysis of Uganda Demographic and Health Survey
(UDHS) data of 2016. A total of weighted sample of 10952 married women aged 15–49 were
included in our analyses. I examined the association between safe sex negotiation and independent
variables using binary logistic regression analysis. The results are presented using odds ratio (OR),
with their respective confidence intervals (CIs). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results: The overall prevalence of safe sex negotiation among married women in Uganda was
80.9%. Age, education, wealth status, region and reading newspapers were found out to be the
predictors of SSN among married women in Uganda. Women aged 30-34 are 97% more likely to
negotiate for safe sex than women in age group of 15–19 years. Likewise, those with tertiary
education are approximately 3.5 times [OR= 4.565; CI = 2.618-7.960] more likely to negotiate for
safe sex compared to those with no formal education. Women in middle and rich wealth status are
31% and 21%, [OR = 1.307; CI = 1.078-1.585] and [OR =1.213; CI = 0.879–1.674] respectively,
more likely to negotiate for safe sex than those in the poor wealth status. Findings also indicated
that women who do not read newspaper/magazine are 62% less likely to negotiate for safe sex
compared to their counter parts who read newspapers/ magazines [OR = 1.384; CI = 1.043–1.835].
Considering region, women from Central, Eastern, and Northern parts of the country were more
likely to negotiate for safe sex than those from Western region.
Conclusions: The findings could inform policies (e.g., girl child educational and sexual and
reproductive improvement) and interventions (e.g., face-to-face counselling; small group
sensitization sessions, sexual and reproductive health seminars) in Uganda on the crucial issue of
increasing safer sex practice among women in sexual unions. Also, increasing male involvement
in sexual and reproductive health is important to accelerate progress towards the achievement of
the Sustainable Development Goal (3 & 5) and their targets on empowering all women and
safeguarding their reproductive rights hence promotion of safe sex negotiation among married
women | en_US |
