Publication:

Socio-demographic and economic factors influencing utilization of youth friendly reproductive health services among youths in selected universities in Nairobi County, Kenya

Background The reproductive and sexual health of the youth remains a relatively new and sensitive area mainly due to restrictive norms and policies guiding the services and also the access and utilization of youth friendly reproductive health services (YFRHS) among the college youth are dependent on many factors.

Methods Descriptive cross-sectional design was used to study 421 youths in selected universities in Nairobi County. Systematic sampling technique was used. Data was collected using a researcher-administered structured questionnaire and Key Informant Interview. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 24.0 and involved univariate and bivariate analysis. Chi-square were used to test the significance of the association between the dependent and independent variables (p<0.05). Qualitative data was analyzed by thematic content analysis.

Results The results indicated that 67.9% of youths utilized counselling services, 42.0% utilized VCT, 24.7% utilized family planning and 12.6% reported having used antenatal or pregnancy services. Utilization for all the reproductive health services increased with age with gender greatly associated with utilization of ANC services (p=0.0001), FP services (p=0.001) and STDs treatment (p=0.002) while age of an individual was associated with VCT services (p=0.0001), FP services (p=0.008) and counselling (p=0.007).

Conclusions Socio-demographic factors influence utilization of YFRHS and therefore there is a need for the Government through the Ministry of Health and partners in health service provision to increase the number of YFRHS and ensure that the recommendations of Adolescent Health Policy guidelines are implemented fully with good evaluation strategies in place.