Views of Service Providers and Adolescents on Use of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services by Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Onukwugha, Franklin I.; Hayter, Mark; Magadi, Monica A.

Abstract

This review examines the literature on adolescents' and providers' views on access and use of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) information and services. The SRH services referred to in this study were predominantly family planning services, STI treatment including HIV testing and counselling services. The study design was a systematic review of empirical studies. Twenty-five databases were searched using a well-defined search strategy and Boolean operators. A total of 45 studies were included in the review, and the findings were reported thematically under four emerging themes. The review showed that adolescents and sexual health service providers had differing views on barriers and enablers to adolescent access to SRH services and often had contradictory views on key markers of youth-friendly services, service preferences, barriers and enablers of service use. While service providers perceived physical and financial barriers as fundamental, adolescents identified barriers emanating from providers' attitude as the key hindrance to their access and use of services. The review also revealed that the unprofessional attitudes of some service providers limit adolescents' access to SRH services. These findings serve as evidence to policy actors at all levels to consider attitudinal qualities of service providers when planning and designing sexual health services for adolescents.

Citation

Onukwugha, F. I., Hayter, M., & Magadi, M. A. (2019). Views of Service Providers and Adolescents on Use of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services by Adolescents: A Systematic Review. African journal of reproductive health, 23(2), 134-147. https://doi.org/10.29063/ajrh2019/v23i2.13

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Acceptance Date: Jun 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 18, 2019
• Publication Date: Jul 10, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 5, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 5, 2021
• Journal: African journal of reproductive health
• Print ISSN: 1118-4841
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 134-147
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.29063/ajrh2019/v23i2.13
• Keywords: Young people; Service provider's attitude; Sexual health needs; Views and perceptions; Youth friendly services; Barriers; Facilitators; Service use; Africa
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/2976156
• Publisher URL: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajrh/article/view/190089
• Additional Information: Paper based on PhD research by Franklin Onukwugha, supervised by Prof. Monica Magadi and Prof. Mark Hayter