Utilization of Reproductive Health Services among Youths in Owerri, Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Youths are faced with immense reproductive health problems and they have limited access to reproductive health services. This study was carried out to investigate the utilization of reproductive health services among youths in Owerri, Southeastern Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross sectional study and the multistage sampling technique was adopted to select samples for the study. A well-structured questionnaire was used to interview the subjects and obtain data for the study which was uploaded into the SPSS version 21 software and the Chi-square was used to test for association at 5% level of significance. A total of 424 people were studied comprising of 276 (65.1%) males and 148 (34.9%) females. Results showed that only 106 (25%) showing good knowledge of reproductive health services while 318 (75%) showed poor knowledge. Among the 148 that have used reproductive services, 56.8% responded that they seek reproductive services in the home of a health worker, 29.1% seek reproductive health services through public health facilities such as health centers, clinic or NGO, and 14.2% obtain their reproductive health services through drug shops such as a pharmacy or chemist. SPSS analysis using the Chi-square showed that the male gender showed poorer knowledge of RHS than the female gender but gender was not found to be significant (p=0.098, χ2=1.993). Other significant socio-demographic factors include marital status (p=0.0001, χ2= 46.29), living pattern (p=0.005, χ2=6.93) and education (p=0.0001, χ2= 17.8). In conclusion, the study showed that the knowledge and the level of utilization RHS is still low among youths in the study area. It was recommended that stakeholders sensitize the public on the importance of youth reproductive health services and strengthen the idea of youth friendly reproductive health services. Keywords: Youth, Utilization, Knowledge, Reproductive Health Services, Youth Friendly Services.