Moyo Stanzia, Rusinga Oswell
University of Zimbabwe, Centre for Population Studies, Harare.
Great Zimbabwe University, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Masvingo.
Afr J Reprod Health. 2017 Mar;21(1):49-63. doi: 10.29063/ajrh2017/v21i1.4.
Adolescent reproductive health behaviour has become an emerging world concern as the age at menarche and sexual debut has plummeted globally. The primary objective of the paper is to understand the importance of reproductive health education to contraceptive use among adolescents in Mhondoro-Ngezi District. The paper also investigates knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices (KABP) pertaining to contraceptive use among adolescents. Factors underlying KABP are further explored. In addition, this paper investigates the availability, accessibility, acceptability and affordability of contraceptives to adolescents. These issues are assessed from the perspective of all duty bearers (mothers, fathers, healthcare providers, religious leaders and secondary school teachers). The paper is based on a cross-sectional study which was conducted in Mhondoro-Ngezi area. A total of 185 adolescents aged 15-19 years were sampled with a sex ratio of 67. The study triangulated both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The results in this paper indicate that adolescents in Mhondoro-Ngezi engage in early sexual debut. Despite the fact that knowledge about modern contraceptives is universal (96%) among adolescents in Mhondoro-Ngezi, contraceptive use is very low, 21%. Limited contraceptive use among adolescents in the study area is a result of the interplay of demographic, policy, socio-cultural, religious and economic factors. The study has thus recommends that the government and other relevant stakeholders to formulate policies that promote reproductive education in order to foster the utilization of contraceptives by adolescents.
随着全球初潮年龄和首次性行为年龄大幅下降，青少年生殖健康行为已成为一个新出现的全球关注问题。本文的主要目的是了解生殖健康教育对姆洪多罗 - 恩盖齐区青少年使用避孕药具的重要性。本文还调查了青少年在避孕药具使用方面的知识、态度、信念和行为（KABP）。对KABP背后的因素进行了进一步探讨。此外，本文调查了青少年获取避孕药具的可得性、可及性、可接受性和可承受性。从所有责任承担者（母亲、父亲、医疗保健提供者、宗教领袖和中学教师）的角度对这些问题进行了评估。本文基于在姆洪多罗 - 恩盖齐地区进行的一项横断面研究。共抽取了185名15至19岁的青少年作为样本，性别比为67。该研究采用了定量和定性数据收集方法相结合的方式。本文的结果表明，姆洪多罗 - 恩盖齐的青少年首次性行为较早。尽管姆洪多罗 - 恩盖齐的青少年中对现代避孕药具的知晓率普遍较高（96%），但避孕药具的使用率却很低，仅为21%。研究地区青少年避孕药具使用有限是人口、政策、社会文化、宗教和经济因素相互作用的结果。因此，该研究建议政府和其他相关利益攸关方制定促进生殖教育的政策，以促进青少年对避孕药具的使用。
