Sources of Reproductive Health Information and Attitude towards Reproductive Health Practices among Female Adolescents with Hearing Impairment in Lagos and Oyo states, Nigeria

Abstract

Adequate information about sexuality is an important factor that affect attitude towards reproductive health practices. However, female adolescents with hearing impairment have problems of normal adolescents to contend with in addition to the problems occasioned by their hearing disability and unlike their normal counterparts, they acquire less information from various sources such as personal conversation, and through audio materials. It is against this backdrop that this study investigated the sources of and the attitude of female adolescents with hearing impairment towards reproductive health practices. A survey research design and multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 155 female adolescents with hearing impaired in Oyo and Lagos state respectively. Three research questions and one hypothesis were generated for the study. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.71. Data generated was analysed through descriptive statistics of frequency count and simple percentage and inferential statistics involving pearson moment correlation analysis. The study revealed that female students with hearing impairment obtain reproductive health information from School and family members while the most preferred sources of reproductive health information available to female students with hearing impairment is the school, followed by health workers/ health institutions and their fathers. The finding also revealed that the attitude of female adolescents with hearing impairment towards reproductive health practices is negative. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.

Keywords: Hearing impairment, attitude, reproductive health, information