Adolescent/Youth Utilization of Reproductive Health Services: Knowledge Still a Barrier

Abstract

Abstract:As a country drives efforts in establishing adolescent/youth friendly services to cater to the unique reproductive and sexual health of adolescents/youths, it is pertinent that the youth know about these services to be able to access and benefit from them. This study therefore examined the knowledge of youths on available adolescent/youth friendly services (A/YFRHS) in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey that collected data from 427 (15 to 24) year olds. Respondents answered questions on general knowledge of A/YFRHS, Sources of knowledge about A/YFRHS, Services offered by A/YFRHS facilities and identification of locally available A/YFRHS. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 to generate descriptive statistics. Two hundred and twenty-eight (82%) of the respondents had general knowledge about A/YFRHS. More than half, 268 (79.5%) of the respondents did not know of a specific A/YFRHS provided in study area. Friends/peers (45.7%) were the best source of information on A/YFRHS. The most popular services known were family planning (81.6%), voluntary counselling and testing (73.8%), and sexually transmitted diseases (67.3%). Knowledge was low (SE = 0.11; SD = 2.20) with a mean score of 5.46 on a 10-point scale. The participants knew what adolescent/youth friendly services were but did not know where to get these services from because they were not aware of the available A/YFRHS facilities. Extensive awareness of locally available A/YFRHS is needed in the study area.

Assessment of access and utilization of adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health services in western Ethiopia

“…In this study, participants who have ever heard about SRH services had used the service more than 11 times likely compared to those who never heard about it. It is consistent with studies conducted in Mandalay city, Myanmar [ 27 ], in Indonesia, Makassar [ 28 ], in Nigeria, Lagos [ 20 ], and Eastern Ethiopia, Harar [ 23 ] which indicated that those who heard about the service were more likely to use the youth health service than those who never heard. This indicates raising awareness on SRH and the services improve utilization of AYSRH services.…”

“…In this study, 28.1% of participants were reported to have heard about adolescents' and youths' sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) services. This finding is lower than studies conducted in Pakistan (52%) [ 19 ], Nigeria (82%) [ 20 ], Northwest Ethiopia (89.4%) [ 21 ], Bale Zone, Ethiopia (96.1%) [ 22 ],and Eastern Ethiopia (72.4%) [ 23 ]. This difference might be explained by, in this study, the inclusion of a greater number of participants from rural areas and out of schools where there is no access to information.…”

“…Similarly, a study conducted in Eastern Ethiopia among youths indicated that the main source of information on AYSRH was school teachers (31.5%) [ 23 ]. But, other studies conducted in other countries like Nigeria, Lagos (45.7%), and Pakistan, Labore (71%) revealed that the main source of information about adolescents and youths reproductive health services were friends [ 19 , 20 ]. Mass media were the main source of information in Bale Zone, Ethiopia [ 22 ] and another study in Nigeria[ 24 ].…”

Utilization of Reproductive Health Services and associated factors among secondary school students in Woldia Town, Northeast Ethiopia, 2020

“…Respondents who have good knowledge of RHS were approximately 4 times more likely to utilize reproductive health service. A similar finding has been reported in other studies (8,(31)(32)(33). The possible justification for this might be, those respondents with a good level of knowledge regarding RHS will understand the benefit of using RHS and the consequence of not using RHS.…”

Factors influencing access to and utilisation of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

“…Many operational barriers in health facilities also impact access and utilisation of these services, such as inconvenient operating times, lack of transportation, and high cost of services [ 5 , 21 , 26 ]. A study in Uganda indicated that the overall quality of SRH services at the facilities was of poor quality to most of them as reported in fifteen of twenty FGDs [ 29 ].…”