Abstract:
Background: Young people with disabilities are often presumed erroneously to be sexually
inactive and at minimal risk for reproductive health problems. Though they have the same need
for sexual and reproductive health services as non-disabled people, they are often overlooked by
sexual and reproductive health programs, intervention and studies. Thus, for context based
interventions that meet the needs of youth with disability, it is vital to have clear understanding
of sexual and reproductive health service utilization and associated factors.
Objectives: To assess sexual and reproductive health service utilization and associated factors
among youth with disability in Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia, 2020.
Methods: Community based cross sectional study design employed both quantitative and
qualitative methods were conducted on 258 youth with disability reside in Jimma town. Youth
with disability who fulfill the eligibility criteria were included in the study. For qualitative study,
association leaders, health care providers and youth with disability were involved. Data were
collected using interviewer-administered questionnaire and checked for completeness, cleaned,
and entered into Epi data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Bi-variable and
multivariable logistic regressions model were used to identify factors associated with outcome
variable. Significance of association was decided by using the 95% confidence interval of AOR
at p-value of <0.05. Thematic analysis has been used for qualitative data.
Result: A total of 243 youth with disability were involved in the study, yielding a response rate
of 94.1%. Magnitude of sexual and reproductive health service utilization was 32.1 %( 95%CI:
26.7%-37.9%).Hearing impairment (AOR =0.24, 95% CI, 0.09-0.59)was negatively associated
,while female (AOR =2.07, 95%CI, 1.08-3.96), good knowledge on reproductive health issue
(AOR; 2.15, 95% CI, 1.126-4.121),sexual history (AOR=7.2, 95% CI 3.461-15.038) and
perceive that sexual and reproductive health service friendly for disabled youth (AOR= 2.35,
95%CI 1.153-4.812) statistically positively associated with sexual and reproductive health
service utilization among youth with disability.
Conclusion: This study shows low utilization of sexual and reproductive health service among
youth with disability when compared non-disabled. Type of disability, sex, knowledge on SRH,
sexual history and perception on disability friendly sexual and reproductive service shows
statistically significant association with sexual and reproductive health services utilization of
youth with disability.
