Sexual and Reproductive Health Service Utilization and Assosciated Factors Among Adolescents of Rural Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is the transitional phase of growth and development between childhood and adulthood where physical, psychological and behavioral changes are commonly noted. Adolescent are compelled to deal with a variety of challenges like harmful sexual orientation, early marriage, peer pressure, limited participation within family, community and national level and reports information on menstrual problems, information on adolescent physical change, information on intimate relationship, STI counseling and information on masturbation as major perceived needs for SRH services. The study aims to assess the utilization and factors associated with SRH services among adolescents.

Materials and methods: A quantitative cross-sectional research design was conducted among 240 adolescent's students of grade 11 and 12 of selected higher secondary schools of Jumla using a self-administered questionnaire. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, fisher exact test and logistic regression)was used for data analysis.

Results: Overall utilization of SRH services was 24.2%. and was found to be strongly associated with marital status (p- value <0.001), occupation of father (p-value 0.002), know SRH service nearby (p-value 0.005), Sexually active in the past 12 months (p- value <0.001), Had more than one sexual partner in the past 12 months (p-value 0.004), Had unplanned/unintended sex in the past 12 months (p- value <0.001).Utilization of SRH service was slightly higher among females (24.5%) compared to male (23.8%.). Most utilized services were for family planning devices and general health checkup.

Conclusions: This study concludes that lack of sufficient information hinders the utilization of SRH services.