Abstract
BackgroundMeeting the medical and sexual health care needs of young people is crucial for sustainable development. In Uganda, youth are faced with a number of challenges related to accessing medical care and sexual health counselling services. This study sought to investigate the barriers faced by Ugandan university students in seeking medical care and sexual health counselling.MethodsThis study is part of a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2005 among 980 students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Data was collected by means of a self-administered 11-page questionnaire. The barriers encountered by respondents in seeking medical care and sexual health counselling were classified into three categories reflecting the acceptability, accessibility, or availability of services.ResultsTwo out of five students reported unmet medical care needs, and one out of five reported unmet sexual health counselling needs. Acceptability of services was the main barrier faced by students for seeking medical care (70.4%) as well as for student in need of sexual health counselling (72.2%), regardless of age, gender, self-rated health, and rural/peri-urban or urban residence status. However, barriers differed within the various strata. There was a significant difference (p-value 0.01) in barriers faced by students originally from rural versus peri-urban/urban areas in seeking medical care (acceptability: 64.8%/74.5%, accessibility: 22.0% /12.6%, availability 13.2%/12.9%, respectively). Students who reported poor self-rated health encountered barriers in seeking both medical care and sexual health counselling that were significantly different from their other counterparts (p-value 0.001 and 0.007 respectively).ConclusionsBarriers faced by students in seeking medical and sexual health care should be reduced by interventions aimed at boosting confidence in health care services, encouraging young people to seek early treatment, and increasing awareness of where they can turn for services. The availability of medical services should be increased and waiting times and cost reduced for vulnerable groups.
Highlights
Meeting the medical and sexual health care needs of young people is crucial for sustainable development
The aim of this study is to investigate unmet medical care and sexual health counselling need, and barriers to care seeking among university students in Mbarara, Uganda
70.4% of the students with Unmet medical care need (UMCN) rated acceptability of health care services as the major barrier experienced in seeking care, followed by accessibility (16.6%) and availability of health care services (13.0%)
Summary
Meeting the medical and sexual health care needs of young people is crucial for sustainable development. Young people have higher risk for sexual and reproductive health problems compared to adults [4] Youthful exuberance affects their way of living and they are more likely to require medical and sexual health counselling [5]. Dependent variables Unmet medical care need (UMCN) referred to those participants who, during the three months prior to the survey, experienced a health problem and thought they needed to visit a doctor but abstained from seeking health care. In this variable there were three categories from the original questionnaire: “yes, several times”, “yes” and “no.” For the analysis, “yes, several times” and “yes” were combined into one category: “yes”.
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