Youth-friendly Reproductive Health Services Research Articles

Beyond Cairo: Sexual and reproductive rights of young people in the new development agenda

At the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), women's rights advocates fundamentally shifted the way the global development community views poverty, gender equality and reproductive rights. While the ICPD's call to action led to a marked improvement in reproductive health, more remains to be done to secure the sexual and reproductive rights and health of all, particularly for young people. As we approach the 20-year anniversary of Cairo, several global processes are happening concurrently that have implications for the future of the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda, including the 20-year review of progress towards achieving the Cairo Programme of Action, the review of the Millennium Development Goals, and the open group discussions about the sustainable development goals and the new development agenda post-2015. There are five key areas of action where significant investment is needed moving forward to ensure young people's access and safeguard their rights: repeal outdated laws and create new policies that safeguard young people's health and rights; provide youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services; guarantee young people's access to information and education; end gender discrimination and ensure government accountability.

Leveraging healthcare delivery system leadership to improve adolescent reproductive health outcomes: lessons learned (so far) from the CDC/OAH National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative

Define common challenges and/or barriers that impede health center leaders from effecting organizational change to improve the quality of reproductive and sexual health services for adolescent clients; identify effective strategies that leaders can adopt to address barriers to the consistent and quality delivery of youth-friendly reproductive and sexual health services for adolescents.

Youth‐friendly reproductive health services in Jordan from the perspective of the youth: a descriptive qualitative study

This study aims at describing the needs for reproductive health services among Jordanian youth, identifying problems youth encounter when using reproductive health services, and identifying youths' perceptions of the characteristics of youth-friendly reproductive health services. A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted on a convenience sample of 60 young men (n = 33) and women (n = 27) (age 12-18 years) selected from the three regions of Jordan. The focus groups were audio taped, and content analysis was used to analyse the data. The results revealed that the participants' knowledge about aspects of reproductive health was limited or inadequate. The participants indicated their need for reproductive health information and quality services. The major barriers to using reproductive health services were unpleasant facilities, unprofessional conduct and ill-informed professionals. Youth expressed many ideas about how services could be improved to be more 'youth friendly'. The findings of this study can be useful to health services planners and healthcare providers to improve services and start youth-friendly reproductive health services in Jordan and to develop educational programmes that may improve healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes and advance their interpersonal skills for working with youth.

Rationale and design of the MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual and reproductive health intervention in Mwanza Region, Tanzania

Large-scale innovative, integrated, multifaceted adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) interventions are urgently needed in sub-Saharan Africa. Implementation through schools and health facilities may maximize intervention coverage and sustainability, however the impact of the use of these structures on intervention content and delivery is not well documented. This paper describes the rationale and design of a large-scale multifaceted ASRH intervention, which was developed and evaluated over three years in rural communities in Mwanza Region, North West Tanzania. The intervention comprised community mobilization, participatory reproductive health education in primary schools, youth-friendly reproductive health services and community-based condom provision for youth. We examine the effect of socioeconomic, cultural and infrastructural factors on intervention content and implementation. This paper demonstrates the means by which such interventions can be feasibly and sustainably implemented to a high standard through existing government health and school structures. However, the use of these structures involves compromise on some key aspects of intervention design and requires the development of complementary strategies to access out-of-school youth and the wider community.

What Is Youth-Friendly? Adolescents' Preferences for Reproductive Health Services in Kenya and Zimbabwe

While there has been increased attention to youth-friendly reproductive health services, little research has been conducted among adolescents in developing countries to assess what characteristics of reproductive health services are most important to them. Large scale population-based surveys were carried out among youth in Kenya and Zimbabwe. A list of characteristics that programmers often think of as youth-friendly was read to respondents, after which they were asked to assess the importance of those characteristics in choosing their reproductive health services. Adolescents rated confidentiality, short waiting time, low cost and friendly staff as the most important characteristics. The least important characteristics included youth-only service, youth involvement and young staff, suggesting that adolescents do not prioritise stand-alone youth services such as youth centres, or necessarily need arrangements particular to youth such as youth involvement. The findings imply that most existing clinical services, even in the most resource-poor settings, are in a position to improve their level of youth friendliness.

Sexual behaviour, contraceptive practice and reproductive health outcomes among Nigerian university students

Context: The continued poor reproductive health behaviour and outcomes among youths informed the investigation of the knowledge, attitudes, sexual behaviour, outcomes and care-seeking among university students in Zaria, north western Nigeria. Methods: Using a cross-sectional descriptive study design, self-administered structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 400 undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University students drawn by multi-staged sampling to collect information on their reproductive health knowledge and behaviour. Findings: Knowledge of most aspects of reproductive health was high. However, gaps where found in some specific areas. Apart from ethnicity and faculty of study, no significant associations were found between knowledge and other demographic variables. Attitudes to reproductive health were generally negative. Overall, 64.1% of the respondents had had sexual intercourse; 65.4% of the males and 60.2% of the females students sexually experienced. The mean age at sexual exposure for females and males were 17.8 and 19.2 years, respectively. The mean number of lifetime sexual partners was 3.4 for males and 2.4 for the females. Of the 54.7% currently sexually active respondents, 53.5% of the males and 48.0% of the females were involved in multiple sexual relationships. Only 32.4% of the sexually exposed respondents had ever used or were currently using a method of contraception. Condom use was only 30% among the sexually active respondents with use higher among the males; however, the use was inconsistent. Use of effective contraceptives was very low. Overall, 23.3% of the respondents had experienced symptoms suggestive of sexually transmitted infections within six months preceding the study, and self medication was the predominant method of treatment. Utilization of the university health services for their reproductive health needs was found to be abysmally low. Conclusion: The gaps in reproductive health knowledge, negative attitudes, high prevalence of risky sexual activity and poor reproductive health care seeking behaviour call for mounting of educational intervention programmes and development of youth-friendly reproductive health services on campus. KEY WORDS: University students; Reproductive health knowledge; Sexual behaviour; Contraceptive use; Reproductive health outcomes Journal of Community Medicine & Primary Health Care Vol.16(2) 2004: 8-16