Utilization of adolescent friendly health services and its associated factors in Dang district of Nepal

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. It is very crucial for adolescents to use the adolescent friendly health services in order to meet sexual and reproductive health needs. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with utilization of adolescent friendly health services in Dang district of Nepal.Methods: A community based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in Dang district of Nepal. Five adolescent friendly health facilities were randomly selected and proportionate sampling was done to fulfill the required sample size. The adolescents were selected conveniently from the areas. Verbal informed consent was taken from the participants and their parents in case of age below 16 years. Approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee of Chitwan Medical College. Bivariate analysis was performed to detect the factors associated with utilization of adolescent friendly health services.Results: Nearly half (48.7%) of the adolescents had utilized adolescent friendly health services. Different socio-demographic factors like age of the participants, current educational status, mother’s education, ethnicity was significantly associated with utilization of adolescent friendly health services. Other factors like awareness about were services, convenient opening days and hour of health facilities and shyness to utilize the services were significantly associated with the utilization of the services.Conclusions: The utilization of the adolescent friendly services was found to be low among the adolescents of Dang district. In order to increase awareness among the adolescent regarding utilization of the services, there is need of coordination between schools, health institutions, communities etc. to conduct various awareness related program.