article · PubMed
A community-based study conducted in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia assessed how young people use reproductive health services and what influences their uptake. Among 391 surveyed in-school and out-of-school youth, nearly 94 percent had heard about reproductive health services. One third reported having engaged in sexual intercourse, and among them, just over half had accessed at least one reproductive health service. Key factors positively associated with service utilisation included having never engaged in sexual intercourse, parental monitoring such as enquiries about friends, knowing where services are located, and reading newspapers. Despite high general awareness, overall engagement with services was considered low. Interventions to improve uptake include establishing youth centres, improving parent and child communication, enhancing life skills, and raising targeted awareness.
Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa experience high rates of new HIV infections and significant unmet reproductive healthcare needs. Understanding why young people do or do not access available clinics helps public health authorities and non-governmental organisations design more effective community programmes, strengthen youth centres, and encourage family communication that supports adolescent health.
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INTRODUCTION: Many youth are less informed, less experienced and less comfortable in utilizing reproductive health services. In the Sub-Saharan region the adolescents account for a higher proportion of new HIV infections and unmet need for reproductive health (RH) services. This study assessed reproductive health service utilization and associated factors among the youth in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from June 15-July 30, 2014. Three hundred ninety one youth were selected by systematic random sampling technique and interviewed using structured questionnaire. Data were anlyzed using SPSS windows version 20. Multiple logistic regression was done to control potential confounding variables. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Three hundred and nighty one in-school and out-of-school youth were interviewed; 256 (65.5%) participants were in school and 209 (53.5%) were males. Almost all respondents (93.9%) had heard about reproductive health services and a third 129 (33%) had ever practiced sexual intercourse and 54.7% of them had utilized at least one reproductive health services. Never had sexual intercourse (AOR=3.693, 95%CI: 1.266, 10.775), families that asked their children about friends (parental monitoring) (AOR=1.892, 95%CI: 1.026, 3.491), know where service provided (AOR=3.273, 95%CI: 1.158, 9.247), youths who reads newspaper readers (AOR=3.787, 95%CI: 1.849were independent predictors of youth reproductive service utilization at 95 % CI and p-value <0.05%. CONCLUSION: Even though the youth have information about reproductive health services, youth reproductive health services utilization is very low. Therefore, building life skill, facilitating parent to child communication, establishing and strengthening of youth centres and increasing awareness for youth about those services are important steps to improve adolescents' reproductive health (RH) service utilization.
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DOI: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2016.25.2.9712
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