Parental Communication On Sexual And Reproductive Health Issues To Their Adolescents And Affecting  Factors At Asella Town, Ethiopia; A Community Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Parents’ communication on sexual and reproductive health issues with their adolescent plays a great role in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with sexual behavior. However lack of parent to adolescent communication was a serious problem in Ethiopia resulted in teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections, school problems, and other sexual risk behaviors. Parents have high responsibility on cultivating their son and daughter regarding to sexual and reproductive health issues. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the level of parent’s communication with their adolescents and affecting factors in Ethiopia. Methods: A community based cross- sectional survey was conducted on 347 randomly selected parents of 10–19 year old teenagers. A random sampling was used to sample the study participants. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire as used to collect data. A binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted for adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at 95% confidence interval (CI), variables at a P-value <0.05 were considered as significant association. Results: The study showed that, 23.1% of parents had communication on SRH issues with their adolescents. Factors computed for adjusted odds ratio [AOR], such as parents completed some form of education (being grades 9–12 [AOR= 2.42, 95% CI: 1.06-5.53]; diploma and above [AOR=4.78, 95% CI: 2.03-11.21]; having good knowledge [AOR =3.08, 95% CI: 1.89-5.39]; and being having positive attitudes [AOR 3.03, 95% CI: 1.37-6.70] were significantly affect the communication.Conclusion: This study revealed that a low proportion of parents’ communication on sexual and reproductive health issues with their adolescents and multidimensional factors appear to determine their discussion. Thus, promotion of parent to adolescent communication, parents training and addressing the importance of parent to young people communication to all parents along with health care providers was important.