Determinants of sexual communication between adolescents and their parents in Adaklu district, Volta region, Ghana: A multinomial logistic regression analysis

Abstract Background: Poor sexual communication between adolescents and their parents results in high rates of negative sexual practices such as teenage pregnancy. Contributing factors to this poor sexual communication between adolescent and their parents in a high teenage pregnancy setting have not been adequately explored. We sought to fill this gap by examining the factors that predict sexual communication between adolescents and their parents in the Adaklu district of the Volta region of Ghana.Methods: A baseline cross-sectional household survey of 221 adolescents aged 10-19 years in 30 randomly selected communities was used. A well-structured questionnaire was developed. A multinomial logistics regression analysis was used to examine factors that significantly influenced communication between adolescents and their parents regarding sex.Results: Only 11.3% and 27.6% of adolescents had discussions on sex with both parents and only one parent respectively in Adaklu district. Adolescent males (AOR=0.21, CI=0.06-0.75), aged 10-14 years (AOR=0.41,CI=0.04-0.57), non-members of adolescent health clubs (AOR=0.46, CI=0.21-1.00), and living with only a father (AOR=0.19,CI= 0.06-0.61) have the lower odds of communicating with their parents on sexual issues. Conclusions: Adolescent-parental sexual communication in Adaklu district is very low. This situation requires more empowerment of adolescents to enable them to discuss sexual issues with their parents through increased engagement with adolescent health club activities and capacity building capacity of parents with the right information on sexual and reproductive health by health staff within the district. Additionally, parents need to be equipped with communication skills to enable them to communicate effectively with their children.