Disparities in utilization of sexual and reproductive health services among high school adolescents from youth friendly service implemented and non-implemented areas of South Ari district, South Omo zone, Southern Ethiopia: a comparative cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, much effort was made to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRH) to adolescents and youths in Ethiopia particularly through establishment of youth friendly service (YFS) corners as part of the existing health care facilities. The existing evidences focused on the utilization of SRH services at YFS alone. There is a dearth of evidence which compares the SRH service use between the YFS implemented and non-implemented areas so that evidences can be drawn to suggest on the successes of the expansion of youth friendly corners. Methods: A school-based comparative cross-sectional study with multistage cluster sampling method was employed. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data and the collected data were entered in to Epi data version 4.4.1 software and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. χ2 test was used to see significant difference in magnitude of SRH service utilization between YFS implemented and non-implanted areas. The association between the SRH services utilization and the independent variables was examined using binary logistic regression. Finally, variables having p-value less than or equal to 0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression model were considered as statistically significant.Results: There was a significant difference in the rate of SRH service utilization between YFS implemented (33.8%) and YFS non- implemented (9.9%) areas (χ2=37.49, p<0.001). Higher educational status of mothers (AOR=2.588, 95 % CI: 1.220, 5.491), having open discussion with family (AOR=3.175, 95%CI: 1.624, 6.206), good knowledge (AOR= 4.511, 95% CI: 2.458, 8.278) and having positive attitude (AOR= 5.084, 95% CI: 2.764, 9.352) were positively associated with SRH services utilization.Conclusion: Compared with high schools from YFS implemented areas, the magnitude of utilization of SRH services was significantly lower among students from high schools where health facilities had not yet implemented YFS. There is a need for more efforts to scale up SRH services in YFS non implemented areas among stakeholders at different hierarchies. Such interventions should target on improving open discussion at family level, knowledge and attitude on SRH issues and women education at large.

Utilization status of sexual and reproductive health services among high school students in assosa zone; western ethiopia, 2021.

“…Similarly those who had knowledge of SRH were 1.3 times more likely to use SRH services than those who were not knowledge about SRH services [(95% CI) AOR=1.3(1.54, 2.73)]. This nding is in line with the two studies conducted in South Omo Zone southern Ethiopian and in Asgede-Tsimbla district Northern Ethiopia(40,41).Possible explanation of this discrepancy is Still the observed proportion is not adequate to say youths are knowledgeable in sexual and reproductive service areas.…”