BackgroundCurrently in Ethiopia, young people’s sexual and reproductive health services are limited and there is a growing issue of confidentiality and affordability of these health services. Moreover, the available services provided are not sensitive to the special needs of young people. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess young people’s sexual and reproductive health service utilization and its associated factors in Awabel district, Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 781 randomly selected young people using a pre-tested structured questionnaires in Awabel district, Northwest Ethiopia. Data were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 software.ResultsThe mean age of respondents were 17.80 (+ 2.65) years. About 41% of young people had utilized sexual and reproductive health services. Young people from families of higher family expenditure, lived with mothers, participated in peer education and lived near to a Health Center were more likely to utilize sexual and reproductive health services. Furthermore, those who had a parental discussion on sexual and reproductive health (AOR (95% C.I): 2.23 (1.43, 3.46)) and ever had sexual intercourse (AOR (95% C.I): 1.88 (1.30, 2.71)) were more likely to utilize the service than their counterparts. On the other hand, those young people lived with their father and had a primary level of educational attainment was less likely to utilize the service.ConclusionUtilization of sexual and reproductive health services is low which needs a great attention where; if not intervened, young people might engage in risky sexual activities. Therefore, it needs a concerted effort from all the concerned bodies to improve their service utilization and thereby reduce the burden of young people’s disease and disabilities associated with sexual and reproductive health.

BackgroundIn Ethiopia besides the very low health seeking behavior of young people, they do not have access to sexual and reproductive health information and even the existing health services are adult-centered. Furthermore, health providers are not well equipped in addressing young people sexual and reproductive health needs. Therefore, parent-young people discussion about sexual and reproductive health issues are crucial in increasing their awareness and reduces their risky sexual behaviors. This study was aimed to assess young people’s parental discussion about sexual and reproductive health issues and its associated factors in Awabel woreda, Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 781 young people aged 10–24 years in Awabel Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia. A pre-tested structured interview administered questionnaire was used for the data collection. The collected data were entered using Epi Data 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 21.ResultsIn the past 6 months, about one quarter, 25.3 % of young people had a parental discussion about sexual and reproductive health issues. Young people who reside in urban areas were more likely to discuss on sexual and reproductive health issues with their parents [AOR = 2.44, 95 % CI: 1.54–3.89]. Similarly, being male was more likely to have a parental discussion about sexual and reproductive health issues than females [AOR = 1.63, 95 % CI: 1.11–2.38]. Furthermore, the odds of parent-young people discussion about SRH matters was more likely among young people aged 20–24 years [AOR = 4.57, 95 % CI: 2.13–9.82], living with fathers [AOR = 2.46, 95 % CI: 1.20–5.04] and had attained a primary level of education [AOR = 2.89, 95 % CI: 1.22–6.87]. Parents lack of interest to discuss, feeling ashamed and culturally not acceptable to talk about sexual matters were found to deter young people’s in discussing sexual and reproductive health matters.ConclusionParent-young people discussion about sexual and reproductive health is very low and there are different hindering factors. And therefore, young people’s sexual and reproductive health programs or policies should be designed in addressing the cultural and societal factors besides the individual or behavioral factors.