Reproductive health seeking behaviour and preference status of contraceptive and health care provider among adolescent in South Western Nigeria.
Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:487 (abstract no. Pub.D.1321) Chouwen CO; Centre For Health Sciences Training, Research And Development, Ibadan, Oyo-State, Nigeria.
There is a dearth of information on the reproductive health seeking behaviour of youth (youth in the markets and motor parks) in South West Nigeria. This has resulted in total neglect of this population in the national health care services, and where intervention programmes have been targeted at them they have proved quite ineffective. This is in spite of the fact that studies have shown a poor perception of risks of infection of HIV/AIDS among this population.The target group are 170 adolescents with a mean age of 19 and have been in the markets and motor parks for a period of 3 years. 95% of these adolescents are actively involved in sex with an average number of 2 partners. They are aware of the social risks involved in sexual networking and the most common sexually transmitted disease among this group is Gonorrhoea and AIDS.Despite the high (95%) knowledge of contraceptive among the target population, the use is low. Condom is the most commonly used while the other forms of contraceptives were not mentioned. Alternatively, there were other preferred ways of preventing pregnancy and treating the infection of STDs. These are the use of ampicillin, menstrogen, alchohol as lubricant and drugs obtained from traditional healers which they consider as very potent. These adolescent would also prefer to partronize pharmaceutical shops and consult native doctors at the onset of any infection. Hospitals and Health clinics come as the last resort.The perception of the extent of risks by these adolescents is low and this has occasion their non use of the right contraceptives and health services. The occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases among this group has informed the need for indepth study of this population and has wide implication on further spread of AIDS and STDs especially in the Sub Sahara Africa.
Keywords: AEGIS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Contraception Behavior, Health Personnel, Sex Behavior, Condoms, Adolescent Behavior, Adolescent, Behavior, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Choice Behavior, Nigeria, Adolescent Health Services, Africa, Africa, Northern, Adolescence, Human, Female, Pregnancy, ICA11
