| dc.description.abstract | The reproductive health (RH) disease burden among youths has been singled out as a major contributor to the overall RH disease burden in Africa and Uganda. However this disease burden is unevenly distributed among different population categories of youths, with poorer RH status and poorer utilization of RH services among the poor, illiterate, married, unemployed, rural youths etc. This status signals inequity in status and utilization of reproductive health services among youths.
Globally, WHO and in Uganda the Ministry of Health have prioritized establishment of youth friendly services as a mechanism of improving the quality and utilization of reproductive health interventions among youths. There is little evidence on equity of YFS. The main objective of this study therefore was to determine the level of equity in provision of reproductive health services to youths, by youth friendly services in the selected study area of Nakawa division. The study examined both social and economic equity.
This was a cross sectional study conducted in Nakawa Division, which used both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Seven parishes in Nakawa division were targeted by the study. Four hundred youths aged 15-24 years were interviewed on utilization of RH services offered under YFS. Analysis was by SPSS and Microsoft excel sheets for quantitative data
The findings showed that at least 90% of youths in this study had received either information or clinical services from NTHC. Female youths and the unemployed were more likely to use RH services than male and employed youths respectively. Services remained inequitable among the married and out of school.
For nine out of 11 RH services studied, utilization was higher among the poor and poorest wealth quintiles. However, post abortion care and HIV treatment were exclusively used by youths from the rich and richest wealth quintiles. | en_US |
