Zeitschrift für Gemeinde- und öffentliche Gesundheitspflege

Abstrakt

Determinants of the Utilization of Modern Contraceptives among Adolecsents in Futa Community, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

Obalase Stephen Babatunde, Adekunle Folasade Omowumi

This study is designed to look into the determinants of utilization of modern contraceptives among adolescents. The study was built on the theory of differential association. Sexual risk taking among adolescents had reached an alarming rate while the adolescent uses of modern contraceptive have been very minimal. The situation has led to increase in maternal morbidity and mortality among the adolescents. The research design for this study was descriptive research design of survey type. The sample for the study was 200 respondents randomly selected in all the nine schools in FUTA. The instrument for the study were self structured questionnaire and in-depth interview schedule. Random sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. The researchers generated five research questions and two research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study at 0.05 level of significance. The result shows that majority (69%) were not aware of family planning unit in their domain while majority (67%) were only conversant with the use of condom. The result also shows that majority of these adolescents (68.4%) do not wish to have interaction with service providers they procure the methods used on the counter (selfmedication).The hypotheses were analysed using chi-square. The result shows that economic characteristics of respondents and low level of awareness affect the usage of modern contraceptives among adolescents. It also shows that most adolescents prefer emergency contraceptives such as condom; it shows the early sexual behavior of these adolescents as the age of the target group is between 16 and 19 years and they are already sexually active. Based on the findings of this study, the study recommends that parents should be closer to their adolescents children and introduce them to early sexuality educations so as to prevent early sexuality activities and enhance abstinence. Sex education should be more emphasized among secondary school children. Low cost or free contraceptive services should be provided for sexually active adolescents and service providers should be ready to assist them especially in the area of counseling.