Background: In 2015, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted that countries will need to meet the increasing demand for contraceptives by the over 600 million 15- to 19-year-olds around the world. Although the unmet need for contraception for Women of Child Bearing Age (WCBA) in Nigeria is 12.7%, the value is higher (35.3%) among adolescents aged 15 – 19 years. Additionally, the unmet need for family planning (FP) among WCBA in Kaduna state is 5.8%, with 33.3% of women aged 20-24 years in Kaduna reported to have had a live birth before the age of 18 years. This study sought to evaluate adolescent contraceptive use in three referral health facilities of Kaduna metropolis. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional desk review of 5543 FP clients that attended three referral centers between 2014 and 2016. Data on their age, parity and the use of contraceptives were collected from the clinic registers and analyzed using SPSS 22. Results: The FP client age ranged from 12 to 57 years, of which only 3.6% were adolescent. The annual proportion of adolescent contraceptive users ranged from 3.1 – 4.1%. More than 96% of the adolescents had given birth to at least one child. Around 62% of the adolescents used injectable contraceptives but there was no IUD use reported by any adolescent. Conclusions: The low proportion of adolescent contraceptive users and their limited choice of contraceptive methods, emanating from multiplicity of client and provider bias, calls for innovative interventions to meet the contraceptive needs of adolescents.

Background: Available data from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa indicates that 12% and 34% of girls were married at age 15years and 18years respectively. This practice of child marriage may debar countries from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Objective: To extract and present disaggregated indices in the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) on the effect of child marriage on health. Method: This desk review study extracted disaggregated maternal and child health indices on married females aged 15-19 years from the 2013 NDHS. Results: The result showed that married females aged 15-19 years were short, thin, and least likely to receive prophylactic Vitamin A dose postpartum and deworming medication at last pregnancy. Also, while awareness for Family Planning (FP) was high, its utilization was poor at only 1.2%. Their Antenatal clinic attendance, facility delivery, skilled birth attendance at delivery and post natal service utilization were lowest. Similarly, mortality of children under 5 was highest amongst these mothers. Although violence during pregnancy was highest amongst this group, nevertheless more than 20% of them agreed that the practice of female circumcision should be continued. Conclusion: These findings depict some of the negative outcomes of child marriage on maternal and child survival which require integrated multisectoral interventions to ensure that all girls have access to timely sexual reproductive health services and information.</P>

Background: Adolescents are exposed to several reproductive health challenges including early marriage, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections. An estimated 14 million adolescents give birth annually of which more than 90% of these occurs in developing countries. Adolescents in the Sub-Saharan Africa have low family planning utilization rates, limited knowledge of reproductive health services and very high pregnancy rates which is not unrelated to the negative attitude of some health care providers towards the provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services and information to adolescents. Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the health workers attitude, practice and its socio-demographic correlates on the provision of contraceptives to adolescents. Methodology: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Kaduna, Nigeria among Health care workers from public health facilities attending a regional child-spacing conference. The data was collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire which yielded 77% response rate. It was entered and analyzed with SPSS20. Result: The respondents were mostly females (93.9%), Muslims (72.5%) with an average age of 42 years. Those respondents older than 40 years (67.7%), married (82.9%), of Muslims faith (72.4%) and with more than 5 years of working experience (84.4%) agreed to provide contraceptive counseling to adolescents. Also the majority of health workers that were females (91.4%), above 40 years of age (69.4%), married (84.8%), Muslims (70.1%) and had more than 5 years working experience (85.6%) agreed to provide contraceptives to unmarried adolescents. However none of the respondents wanted to provide IUD to unmarried adolescents. Conclusion:The majority (83%) of public health workers in Northern Nigeria are willing to provide early contraceptive counseling and services to both married and unmarried adolescents. This findings will further guide the drive to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education