DETERMINANTS OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICE ACCESSIBILITY AMONG RURAL ADOLESCENTS IN THE SOUTH- EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study determined reproductive health service accessibility among rural adolescents in the South-Eastern Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 282 adolescents between 15-19years who were in senior secondary school. A structured questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were used to collect information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (mean scores). The result revealed that level of accessibility was low, 21% spent less than 30 minutes to reach health facility. The study also revealed positive mean scores on perceived factors influencing rural adolescents accessibility to reproductive health services  such as no perceived need for the services ( =3.08 ), fear of meeting a known person ( =3.09), personal dislike for the services ( =3.10),   travelling  distance to facility ( =3.11), ignorant of available reproductive health services in the health facility ( =3.11) and location of facility and its environment ( =3.15 ).  Furthermore, probit regression estimates of relationship between respondents perceived factors and accessibility were negative and significantly related to reproductive health services at various levels of significance such as no perceived need (-1.95*); perceived long awaiting period (-2.04**) and location of facility and its environment (-2.08**). while ignorant of reproductive health facilities available in the facility was positive and significant at (2.33**). In conclusion, the study found that accessibility to reproductive health services were low and seriously influenced by some adolescents’ perceived factors. Therefore, the study recommended that government should collaborate with some other non-governmental agencies to establish more number of facilities offering youth friendly health services in order to reduce the travelling distance to reproductive health service centers.