Reproductive health challenges of rural female adolescents in rural area of South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: A rural young girl continues to be vulnerable in many societies of the world, including Nigeria because sexual and reproductive health needs are often underserved. Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) refers to the physical, mental and emotional well-being of adolescents which includes freedom from sexual violence, STIs, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, maternal death, and disability. These young individuals experience new mental, physical and hormonal changes that predispose them to issues associated with discovering their sexuality. Objectives: The study sought to determine the reproductive health knowledge as well as the reproductive health challenges of female rural adolescents in a rural area of South Eastern Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 250 secondary school students in Anaocha local government area in South Eastern Nigeria. The classes of the students varied from both junior and senior secondary classes. Multistage sampling technique was used in the selection of participants. Simple random sampling of towns and schools were done. Stratified sampling of the various classes in the schools was done and finally simple random sampling of respondents was done. Self administered questionnaire was used to obtain data from selected respondents. Results: Two hundred and fifty female adolescents were studied with a mean age of 14 ± 2.01 years. Majority of the students (82.8%) had attained menarche while 99.6% of students had a good understanding of puberty. Thirty-two had engaged in sexual activity with mean age of coitarche being 11 ± 3.3 years and modal age group being 12-14 years. Thirteen (5.2%) of the respondents had sex for economic reasons. Four (1.2%) had been raped while 22 (8.8%) of the respondents had been sexually harassed. Of those who had engaged in sex, only 7 (21.8%) used contraceptive while only one case of unwanted pregnancy was reported. Conclusion: Many of the respondents had good knowledge about puberty with cycle length and fertile period but poor knowledge on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. There was also early coitarche with poor contraceptive use. Reproductive health challenges such as STIs, vaginal infections, unprotected intercourse, substance abuse, and same-sex relationship were still present among adolescents in the rural south Eastern Nigeria. There is still need for sexuality education to prepare young adolescents for a healthy sexual and reproductive life.