Novignon Jacob, Fenny Ama Pokuaa, Amenah Michel Adurayi, Addom Selasie, Gladzah Annick, Ibrahim Nassirou, Tapsoba Ludovic Deo Gracias, Agyepong Irene A, da Silva Roxanne Borges, Ensor Tim
Centre for Social Policy Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 3;20(6):e0321265. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321265. eCollection 2025.
Primary healthcare (PHC) facilities have become essential in promoting adolescent healthcare, yet they face resource limitations that hinder their effectiveness. Ensuring the efficient use of available resources has therefore become pertinent. This study assessed the technical efficiency of primary health care facilities in providing adolescent mental sexual and reproductive health (AMSRH) services. Data was collected from 53 PHC facilities drawn from rural and urban locations in four districts in the Greater Accra region using a multi-stage sampling design. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) was employed to estimate the technical efficiency of each facility in optimizing outputs given available inputs. The findings revealed significant variation in efficiency, ranging from 0.91 to 0.04 with an average score of 0.60. Rural facilities and government-owned health facilities were more efficient compared to their urban and private counterparts. Facilities offering a wider scope of services to adolescents were also more efficient. However, the provision of adolescent mental health services was limited. Efforts should improve efficiency in the use of AMSRH services by properly aligning resource allocation to needs while expanding the range of services available to adolescents.
初级卫生保健（PHC）机构在促进青少年健康方面已变得至关重要，但它们面临资源限制，这阻碍了其有效性。因此，确保有效利用现有资源变得至关重要。本研究评估了初级卫生保健机构在提供青少年心理、性与生殖健康（AMSRH）服务方面的技术效率。采用多阶段抽样设计，从大阿克拉地区四个区的农村和城市地点选取的53个初级卫生保健机构收集了数据。运用随机前沿分析（SFA）来估计每个机构在给定可用投入的情况下优化产出的技术效率。研究结果显示效率存在显著差异，范围从0.91到0.04，平均得分为0.60。与城市和私立机构相比，农村机构和政府所有的卫生机构效率更高。为青少年提供更广泛服务范围的机构效率也更高。然而，青少年心理健康服务的提供有限。应通过使资源分配与需求适当匹配，同时扩大青少年可获得的服务范围，来提高AMSRH服务的使用效率。
