Factors Associated with Adolescent Friendly Health Services Utilization among Public Higher Secondary School Students of Dang District of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescent friendly health services play an important role in helping ill adolescents get back to good health through diagnosing health problems, detecting problem behaviors and managing or referring them elsewhere. Adolescent health needs are growing due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors but health services in developing countries are not well organized to provide appropriate care. There are still many adolescents who don’t know about adolescent friendly health services. The aim of this study was to assess the utilization of adolescent friendly health services among public higher secondary school students of Dang district.

Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 372 dolescents of Ghorahi sub-metropolitan city of Dang district. Multistage sampling technique along with simple random techniques was adopted to reach the respondents. Univariate, Multivariate logistic regression was performed to test the existing significant association between utilization of adolescent friendly services and independent variables.

Results: One in tenth (14.8%) of respondents had utilized adolescent’s friendly health services. About four-fifth (78.5%) of respondents got information regarding service from their teachers. Age of respondents, awareness about the facilities providing services, awareness about location of health facility, satisfaction of service, types of health facility visit, sufficient time provided by health service provider was found statistically significant with adolescent friendly health service utilization.

Conclusion: The utilization level of adolescent friendly health services among respondents is poor. The major reasons for not utilizing the service were due to lack of information about the centers, perceived no necessity of service, unaware about the services. Great effort and attention of all concerned bodies to design and implement appropriate adolescent friendly health information, education and communication strategies in schools as well as out of schools to increase utilization of adolescent friendly health services is mandatory.