Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa.
Department of Environmental Science and Health, Faculty of Applied Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Ascot, Corner Gwanda Road and Cecil Avenue, P O Box Ac 939, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Reprod Health. 2022 Jan 3;19(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s12978-021-01314-5.
Health service providers play a significant role in crafting and implementing health policies and programs that manage adolescent sexual health-related issues at different health system levels. These influence adolescent sexual behaviours and practices.
This study explored the roles of health service providers in managing adolescent sexual issues and how this impacts their sexual behaviours and practices. The study further probed the health service providers on how the indigenous health system could be integrated into the modern health system for effective management of adolescent sexual health related issues.
A qualitative cross-sectional survey was conducted on purposively selected health service providers in health facilities in Mberengwa and Umguza districts. Data was collected using unstructured interviews that were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed. Findings were presented as clearly defined as superordinate and subordinate themes.
A total of five superordinate themes and 19 subordinate themes emerged from the interrogated data. The superordinate themes were: overview of adolescent sexual health issues, role of modern health system in adolescent sexual health issues, challenges encountered, indigenous health system factors that could be factored into modern health systems, and strategies to foster the integration of indigenous health system and modern health system. The subordinate themes explored in-depth the findings of the key stakeholders under the five superordinate themes.
From the findings, it can be concluded that health service providers play an essential role in shaping and providing adolescent sexual health services that adolescents utilise despite challenges that have reduced demand for these services. Therefore, there is a need to point out that there is a window of opportunity to foster collaborations between the indigenous health system and the modern health system as they strive to serve the adolescents to the best of their ability though in different contextual settings.
卫生服务提供者在制定和实施不同卫生系统层面管理青少年性健康相关问题的卫生政策和方案方面发挥着重要作用。这些政策和方案影响着青少年的性行为和实践。
本研究探讨了卫生服务提供者在管理青少年性问题中的作用，以及这如何影响他们的性行为和实践。本研究进一步探讨了卫生服务提供者关于如何将本土卫生系统纳入现代卫生系统，以有效管理青少年性健康相关问题的看法。
在姆贝雷格瓦和乌姆古扎地区的卫生设施中，对有目的地选择的卫生服务提供者进行了定性的横断面调查。使用非结构化访谈收集数据，访谈内容被记录下来，逐字转录，并进行了主题分析。研究结果以明确界定的上级和下级主题呈现。
从被询问的数据中得出了五个上级主题和 19 个下级主题。上级主题是：青少年性健康问题概述、现代卫生系统在青少年性健康问题中的作用、遇到的挑战、可以纳入现代卫生系统的本土卫生系统因素、以及促进本土卫生系统和现代卫生系统融合的策略。下属主题深入探讨了五个上级主题下关键利益攸关方的调查结果。
从研究结果可以得出结论，尽管存在一些挑战，减少了对这些服务的需求，但卫生服务提供者在塑造和提供青少年性健康服务方面发挥着重要作用，青少年也在利用这些服务。因此，有必要指出，本土卫生系统和现代卫生系统之间存在着合作的机会之窗，因为它们努力以各自的能力为青少年提供最佳服务，尽管它们所处的背景环境不同。
