Availability, awareness, and quality of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health services in cameroon: a mixed methods study
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Rinda Ubuzima -Rwanda (https://rindaubuzima.rw) Rwanda
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Intrahealth Rwanda Rwanda
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University of Buea Cameroon
Publication date: 2023-04-26
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A1214
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Developing nations such as Cameroon have a shortage of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. This has led to an increased prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS in the country. The study aims at investigating the availability, accessibility, and quality of SRH provided to young people in selected towns within the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.
Method:
The study is a cross-sectional study that made use of both qualitative and quantitative methods and was conducted from December 2021 to September 2022 among 88 randomly selected participants; 28 are healthcare providers and 59 are young people between 10 and 24 years old. A checklist was developed, validated, and used in the data collection, with ATLAS T1 version 5.2 and SPSS version 26.0 used to code and analyze the qualitative and quantitative data, respectively.
Results:
Yong people indicated that the following services are available: HIV testing (89.1%), pregnancy testing (77.8%), contraception (72.9%), circumcision (68.3%), fertility awareness (50%), antennal care (65.9%), and postnatal care (65.9%). From our results, only 24.6% of young people revealed that information is disseminated regularly to raise awareness about the availability of SRH services, and most (65.4%) of the providers revealed that they do not raise awareness of SRH services. Concerning the quality of services provided, 64.4% of the young people said their needs are satisfied when they receive SHR services. Qualitative findings revealed shyness, lack of knowledge, resistance from religious groups and families, insecurities from political instability, and inadequate training, among others, as barriers to SRH accessibility.
Conclusion:
The study shows the availability of SRH services. However, information dissemination about SRH services by service providers was poor. Targeted interventions are required to overcome barriers to the uptake of SRH services and guarantee the health and well-being of young people in Cameroon.