Abstract
Objective
Problematic access to and use of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services potentially endanger the well-being of adolescents and retards progress towards attainment of United Nations health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Drawing on a qualitative research approach, this paper examines the level of SRH-related knowledge, service access and use among school-going adolescents in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana.
Methods
We conducted 12 focus group discussions and 18 in-depth interviews with 132 in-school adolescents and six healthcare providers in the metropolis. A thematic analytical framework was used to analyse the data.
Results
Findings suggest that the majority of adolescents had good knowledge about the available SRH services, with an emphasis on the different forms of contraceptives. However, the use of the various SRH services was challenging and reduced to counselling services. Adolescents were faced with various difficulties in their bid to access SRH services, including social stigma, attitude of service providers, fear of teachers and the anticipated negative response of parents due to the complex socio-cultural structure of Ghanaian society. Discussion with elders about SRH issues was considered a taboo.
Conclusion
Whilst social negotiation with parents, teachers and SRH service providers as well as school curricula alignment could arrest the barriers to adolescents’ access to SRH services, eHealth services such as the ‘Bisa’ Health App could potentially provide easy and cost-effective access to SRH information among in-school adolescents.
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Change history
30 January 2018
The journal had been advised to revise the title so that Clarivate Analytics can try to count the citations more accurately. There’s been confusion due to the existence of another journal with the same name.
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Godfred Amankwaa declares that he has no conflict of interest. Kabila Abass declares that he has no conflict of interest. Razak Mohammed Gyasi declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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The original version of this article was revised: Due to the existence of another journal with the same name, the Publisher has added a subtitle, “From Theory to Practice.” Effective as of January 2018, the new title of this Journal is Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice.
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Amankwaa, G., Abass, K. & Gyasi, R.M. In-school adolescents’ knowledge, access to and use of sexual and reproductive health services in Metropolitan Kumasi, Ghana. J Public Health (Berl.) 26, 443–451 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0883-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0883-3