Reproductive Health Needs of Urban and Rural out of School adolescents in East Gojjam: a Cross-Sectional Comparative Study
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Date
2001-12
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
A cross sectional comparative study involving adolescents aged 10-19 years was carried out in
East Gojjam in May 2001 to assess reproductive health needs of rural and urban out of school
adolescents. A total of 12 kebeles were selected from four woredas by cluster sampling. A
modified random walk method was used to identify households. Data were collected from a
total of 1001(96.3%) adolescents, of which 51% were from rural areas and 57% of the
participants were females. About 60% of them were found to be illiterate. Out of the
respondents 45% of them reported they had started sex already. The mean age at first sex was
much lower than several previous studies. Moreover, 47% of the sexually active claimed to
have more than one sexual partner. Though, knowledge on modern contraceptives and STD and
HIV/AIDS seems good, 78% and 84% respectively, several misconceptions abound. Most of
the study subjects belief that they are invulnerable for HIV. Only 21% and 13% of the sexually
active reported to have ever used contraceptives and condoms respectively. Sexual activity was
significantly higher among rural adolescents even after controlling for potential confounding
variables, OR=3.0, 95%CI (1.9, 6.2). However, modern contraceptive use was ten times lower
among rural adolescents in relation to urban, (OR= 0.10 95%CI = 0.04, 0.3). Forty three percent
of the sexually active female adolescents had ever been pregnant, of which about 15% had a
history of abortion. Despite having all these health problems, only 8.7% of the participants had
visited health institutions in three months prior to the study, of which 70% of them were urban
dwellers. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the majority of adolescents had
incomplete knowledge and most of them particularly those from rural areas were found to be at
greater risk of reproductive and sexual health problems including HIV. Finally, programs that
comprise both promotional activities and reproductive health services that could serve the hard
to reach out of school adolescents should be designed and implemented as a matter of priority.
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Keywords
Reproductive Health Needs of Urban