Contraceptive Use Among Female Adolescents in Twifo Praso Senior Secondary School in the Twifo Atti-Mokwa District in Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

Background: The use of contraceptives by female adolescents is still low in many low–income countries, including Ghana. There is low level of contraceptive use among adolescents resulting in high teenage pregnancy rates in the Twifo Atti Mokwadistrict of Ghana. There is the need to examine factors influencing modern contraceptive use among adolescent in the Twifo Atti Mokwa district, an area where teenage pregnancy is high. Objective: This study aimed at determining factors influencing modern contraceptive use among female adolescents in the Twifo-Atti MokwaDistrict. Methods: A cross sectional study design was done with the help of quantitative research methods. A structured closed ended questionnaire was adopted in collecting data from 291 female adolescents focusing on their knowledge of contraceptives, attitude towards and practices of modern contraceptives in addition to their socio-demographic characteristics. Descriptive, bivariate and logistic regression analytic techniques was also used to analyze the data after cleaning and entry into STATA version 16. At the 95% confidence interval, the significance level was agreed at p<0.05. Results were presented in tables, and charts. Results: This study provided evidence on the knowledge, attitude and practice and the challenge in the use of modern contraceptives among female adolescents in the second cycle institution in the Twifo Atti-Mokwa District in the Central Region of Ghana. This served as a basis for policy formulation and reformulation on the use of modern contraceptives in controlling teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Conclusion and recommendations: The study found modern contraceptive knowledge among adolescents to be very high but use was not encouraging. The contraceptive prevalence rate was 36.1%. Only few of the respondents who were sexually active used contraceptives consistently. Parents of female adolescents must be educated and encouraged to engage their children in reproductive talks.