Reproductive Health needs of Adolescent School Dropouts in the Ga East Municipality

Abstract

BACKGROUND Adolescents represent one of the main pillars of any society. They are, however, a vulnerable group who face many challenges during this period including issues concerning their reproductive health. It is also estimated that one out of five adolescent aged 10 – 19 years has at least one serious reproductive health problem which include early pregnancy resulting in school dropout, unsafe abortion and STIs including HIV. OBJECTIVE This study explored the reproductive health needs, awareness and services available to adolescent school dropouts in the Ga East Municipality. METHODS The study was cross sectional in design and employed a quantitative data collection approach. A sample of 333 adolescent school dropouts was selected from the sub-municipalities of Ga East with the help of community guides. Statistical analysis of the data was done using PASW version 18.0. Chi square analysis was used to determine association between explanatory and outcome variables of interest. RESULTS The study revealed that more than half of the adolescent school dropouts (57.4%) had ever had sex with 36.7% of them not using any form of contraception. The age of respondents had a significant influence on whether they had heard of contraception. The greatest barrier to accessing reproductive health by these adolescents is lack of information. They expect the health worker to be providing such information. CONCLUSION Lack of adolescent friendly corners cause adolescents to have limited access to their reproductive health needs and they tend to talk to their friends/peers. This makes them vulnerable and exposes them to various reproductive health problems like unintended pregnancies, STIs and dropping out of school. Most adolescents were aware of contraception but their greatest barrier according to them to accessing this was lack of information and this is supported by a study conducted in the same municipality on in-school adolescents which also stated that though most adolescents were aware of contraception, they may be engaging in early sex as a result of lack of information ( Okotah & Laar, 2012) .

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Thesis (MPH) - University of Ghana, 2012

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