ADOLESCENT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES IN JIMMA CITY: ACCESSIBILITY AND UTILIZATION

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Accessibility of health services for reproductive health (RH) is an important factor in increasing use of reproductive health services. Reports show that reproductive health services access in Ethiopia varies by region. A better understanding of the accessibility and utilization of existing reproductive health services by adolescents will help to address gaps with respect to provision of youth friendly services. The objective of this study was to assess the access to and the utilization status of RH services by adolescents in the age group of 15-19 years in Jimma City. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma City, Southwest Ethiopia from February to March 2004. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the sampled population. Adolescents aged between 15 to 19 years were interviewed about their accessibility and utilization of reproductive health services. The data were entered into two different computers using SPSS for windows version 12.0.1 and analyzed using STATA 9.1. Descriptive, bivariate analysis and logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. RESULTS: Ninety five percent of adolescents could access Information, Education and Communication with very easy access and easy accessibility. However, 465(43%) of adolescents had difficulty (difficulty and great difficulty) to access abortion care. Almost all mean index of the variables were close to the mean and midpoint of the accessible average index (2.09±SD=0.52). Among 1082 adolescents, 445(41.1%), and 375(34.7%) were ever and current users of reproductive health services, respectively. Among socio-demographic and economic predictors, age and means of communication in the households showed a significant association with utilization of reproductive health services (p<0.05). Significant association was observed between utilization and knowledge about reproductive health services and source of information (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The majority of adolescents were not utilizing reproductive health services. Thus, much more intensified effort is required to increase for each the reproductive health service utilization of adolescents. There should be health promotion activities for adolescent in order to improve the accessibility of the services and utilizations or reproductive services.