Age of Sexual Debut and Modern Contraceptive Use among Women of Reproductive Age in South Africa

Despite the increasing use of modern contraceptives worldwide, its use remains low in sub-Saharan Africa, and this has been attributed to demographic and socio-economic factors. The association between early sexual debut and the propensity to use modern contraceptives remains unexplored in South Africa. Thus, this study examines the association between the age of sexual debut and modern contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in South Africa. We used secondary dataset from the most recent South Africa Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2016. For the purpose of the study, only sexually active women of reproductive age (15–49) with complete responses on all the variables of interest (N = 7505) were included. We used a multivariable binary logistic regression analysis to examine the association between age at sexual debut and modern contraceptive use. The regression analysis results were presented using crude odds ratio (cOR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) at a 95