Access to family planning for youth: perspectives of young family planning leaders from 40 countries

Abstract

Background: With growing populations of young people, low and middle-income countries have renewed focus on reaching both unmarried and married youth with family planning (FP) services. Young people themselves bring an important perspective to guide future programmatic directions. Methods: In October 2018, 207 youth leaders in FP from around the world completed an online survey prior to their participation at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP). These youth leaders provided their perspectives on the most important influencers for youth FP use, how easy or hard it is for youth to obtain FP, preferred sources of FP methods for youth, and perceptions of commonly used terms in FP programming. We examined differences in perceptions of unmarried and married youth’s access to and use of FP using bivariate analyses. Results: Respondents reported that peers/friends were the most important influencer on use of FP among unmarried youth (80.2%), while spouse/partner was the most important for married youth (80.4%). Oral contraceptive pills, injectable contraception, and contraceptive implants were perceived as significantly harder for unmarried youth to access. Privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity were all important factors for the locations to access FP for unmarried youth, while married youth were more influenced by cost. None of the commonly used terms for FP were perceived positively by a majority of respondents, with the exception of ‘birth spacing’ by African respondents (51.0%). Conclusions: These findings indicate that the preferences and needs of unmarried youth are different than married youth, but that all young people face barriers accessing FP. Unmarried youth seeking family planning are more influenced by peers and friends and continue to face difficulty accessing methods compared to married youth. These findings indicate the importance of including youth perspectives in development of youth-focused family planning programs.

Mixed-methods study on pharmacies as contraception providers to Kenyan young people: who uses them and why?

“…This difference may be a result of different dispensing protocols and establishment layouts in pharmacies and public health facilities in HICs versus LMICs. Evidence from other LMICs corroborates our findings that among young people, 25 and the general population, 26 pharmacies’ contraception services are appreciated for the privacy offered.…”

Influences on seeking a contraceptive method among adolescent women in three cities in Nigeria

“…Along with the modern medical (professional) and the folk medical sectors, the popular sector are the social networks and cultural influences sought for health care guidance. The influencers that comprise this group including peer, parent and community members have been widely researched for their impact on young women’s health decisions [ 25 – 27 ]. This idea came out strongly in the results, with decisions to seek contraceptive care being grounded in the influence of the people and cultural influences surrounding the girl.…”

Geographical variation and factor associated with modern contraceptive utilization among Young married women aged between 15-24 years: Spatial and multilevel analysis of EDHS 2016.

“…Young sexual and reproductive health is affected by a country's cultural, religious, legal, political and economic contexts. Utilization of family planning methods is determined by factors at the individual, household, and community level, but the geographic pattern of contraceptive use may be associated with in uences at zonal level such as the availability and accessibility of health services in these areas (17).In responding, health actions are needed at each level, from structural, through community settings including schools and health services (18)(19)(20)(21).…”

“…Access to sexual and reproductive health services for youth and improving availability, affordability, and youth-friendliness of service may critical for this achievement. But it is not enough which need to include provide service in different location by private and governmental provider to offer quality of service but also emphasized the important of policymakers concerned with youth FP programs (21)(22)(23).…”