Speaker
Description
Background
Sexual and reproductive health is a critical aspect for young male adults’ well being but often not prioritized. Young male adults have considerable sexual and reproductive health needs yet many are not aware of the SRH services available hence increased risk of having un protected sexual intercourse leading to increased unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections. High prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, and unmet needs of contraceptives are common problems among young male adults, the study aimed to assess awareness and intentions of male young adults’ utilization of SRH services.
Methods
A cross-sectional study design was employed where data was collected using an online questionnaire, two Universities one public and one private randomly selected, and a multistage random sampling was used to select the respondents. The dependable variable was utilisation of SRH services while the independent variables were awareness of and intention to utilise sexual reproductive health services. variables, awareness, intention, and utilization were measured as latent variables based on several related questions and then dichotomized based on the scores obtained. utilization and categorical characteristics were performed using the chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test, whereas the independent samples t-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test were employed for comparisons involving numeric variables. Ethical approval was sought from UNZABREC.
Results
The sample selected was 820, 783 (95.5%) young male adults responded to the online questionnaire; with a median age of 22years (IQR 20-23. Almost all (97.7%) were single. Only 16.6% respondents demonstrated awareness of sexual and reproductive health services particularly in areas regarding contraception, sexual reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. More than half 64% of the respondent reported having had sexual intercourse, with median age at first intercourse being 19 years. of those that had engaged in sexual intercourse 48% had used contraceptive. With regard to intention of utilising SRH services, 76.5% reported having intentions to utilise SRH services. The study revealed that only 52.4% had utilised the SRH services. Of those that that utilised 84.9% sought services from a government facility; and services sought 24.7% contraceptives, 11.8% HIV/AIDS counselling 31.1% HIV/AIDS testing and 4.4 STIs treatment. Statistical test showed significance in utilisation of SRH services being higher among those who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse and those who had higher awareness.
Conclusion
The results About half of the responded reported having had utilised the SRH services and most of them had low awareness on the services and that more than half are sexually active. Considering that the awareness was low among the majority, sensitization on SRH services to male young adults should be prioritised.
