Abstract
This cross-sectional study investigated the use of health services by adolescent girls using Anderson’s model of health utilization. Age was examined as a predisposing factor, parental support, parental communication and type of reproductive health facility was examined as enabling factors while emotional condition was examined as a need factor. We expected that that parental support and parental communication will influence adolescents’ use of reproductive health services. Results showed that age, emotional condition and type of reproductive health facility predicted the odds of adolescents using reproductive health services. Contrary to expectations, parental support and communication did not predict adolescents’ use of reproductive health services. Findings are discussed in relation to previous empirical studies on parenting and use of reproductive health services.
Highlights
Use of health services by is key to adolescent health and well-being
Age was examined as a predisposing factor, parental support, parental communication and type of reproductive health facility was examined as enabling factors while emotional condition was examined as a need factor
The following factors account for low use of reproductive services by adolescents; feeling that reproductive services are for adults or married people (World Health Organization [WHO], 2001), harsh culture against the use of reproductive services by adolescents, lack of privacy (WHO, 2001), factual misinformation or perceptual biasby adolescents that use reproductive health services is for promiscuous or Infected people, (Belmonte et al, 2000)
Summary
Use of health services by is key to adolescent health and well-being. Adolescents make up a large and growing segment of many societies (Bankole & Malarcher, 2010). The framework predicts that a series of factors predisposing, enabling and need factors influence the utilization of health services by people. Diehr and Evashwick (1984) used the model to examine utilization among elderly people, their result showed that need factors were important predictors of use of physician services, hospitalizations, ambulatory care and home care while predisposing factors were better predictors of the use of dental services. The study of Rivara et al (2007) showed that need factors measured by experience of Intimate partner violence influenced the use of health services. The purpose of the study was to examine how predisposing, enabling and need factors influence the use of reproductive health services by a random sample of adolescent girls and the interrelationships of these variables
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