Abstract

Reproductive health is a very important aspect in public health. Young people go in into sexual activities without knowing various aspects of their reproductive health. This therefore leads most of them to unwanted pregnancies, abortion, sexually transmitted infections.

The objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice and associated risk factors of sexual and reproductive health amongst youths in Molyko Buea.

This study is a community based cross-sectional study which was conducted among 700 youths in Molyko Buea selected using multi stage sampling. Data was collected using questionnaire made up of 4 sections i.e socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice. SPSS version 26 was used to analysis descriptive statistics, chi square test, and logistic regression.

The findings of this study shows that more than half (62%) of the participants had good knowledge on reproductive health, more than half (58%) had positive attitude towards reproductive health, but most of the participants (84%) had poor practice towards reproductive health and there were some factors that were significantly associated to sexually transmitted infections with p-values (< 0.5) considered significant.

The findings of this study show that more than half of the participants had good knowledge and positive attitude towards reproductive health, but there are still some gaps in such knowledge, and attitude which still needs interventions. Also most of the participants had poor practices towards reproductive health. Finally the findings also show that there were some associated risk factors to sexually transmitted infection.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations, sexual and reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing in all matters related to the reproductive system. This implies that people are able to have satisfying safe sex life, capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so[1,2].

Young adulthood is very unique and a vital period when we talk about development, wherein unmet health needs and differences in access to the right care, health status and death rates are high. This is a time when prevention and intervention strategies may decrease threats to health along the course of adulthood[3]. Adolescent and Young people (youths) are at a very complex stage of life where health outcomes, attitude and behaviors are influenced which in the long run affect the nation’s future adults[4,5].

Sexuality is a very sensitive area of health that brings a relationship between sexual behaviors and certain reproductive health problems [6].       HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) are prevalent amongst young people all over the world with the highest rates among people 20-24 and these have adverse consequences on their health[5,6] .In the US in 2018 Young people aged 15-24 account for almost half of the 26 million newly sexually transmitted infections[7]. In 2015 the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) found that there was an increase diagnosis of Gonorrhea since 2014 [8,9]. According to the U.S President’s Emergency plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the HIV prevalence in Cameroon amongst people 15-49 years was 3.4 in 2018 with 2% of young people from 15- 24 years living with HIV[10,11].

Young people take part in pre, extra-marital and high-risk sexual activities. This behavior might have been influenced by current modernization observed in most parts of the world[12]. The knowledge on sexual and reproductive health is very important in the life of young people. Educating them by empowering them with information and good attitude at this point in their lives would guarantee lesser vulnerability and health outcomes which are better in their future [11,13].There is an urgent need to educate young people about sexual and reproductive health in other for a reduction in the number of infected young people. This paper therefore is aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice and also to identifying the associated factors of sexual and reproductive health among youths in Molyko Buea.

1.2 Problem Statement

Molyko is a quarter in Buea, made up of many young people. This is due to the fact that many universities and secondary schools are located in this part of the town. Youthful age is the time where many young people are vulnerable and easily copy from their surroundings; they are easily influenced by their peers.

Modernization and new trends tend to influence these young people and they get in to sexual activities without considering the consequences it may have on their reproductive health.

Some get into Alcohol and drug abuse that renders them vulnerable to rape or unplanned sexual activities. Some of the young people want to live more than their standards so they get in to having multiple sexual partners, prostitution or turn to have “sugar daddies”. Most times they do not protect their selves (using condoms) before having sexual contact with this people, maybe because most of them don’t know how to use it or they just feel it’s not pleasurable, there by leading them to unwanted pregnancies, Abortions, Sexually transmitted infections and above all HIV.

When many people are sick in a country the burden of sickness in that country increases, this will affect the work force and also the economy of the country. Again young people are the leaders of tomorrow; a country with many young sick people is a country that will be bound to fall socially and economically in years to come. This is therefore a very serious Public health problem and measures have to be taken in other to reduce the number of young people who are infected with sexually transmitted infections.

Due to these high sexual and reproductive health problems it is very necessary to find out if Young people in Molyko have adequate knowledge to their sexual and reproductive health, if they have a positive attitude towards their sexual and reproductive health, the various sexual practices they are involved in and also the various associated factors that predispose them to STIs.

1.3       Research Questions

1. What is the level of knowledge among youths in Molyko on reproductive health?
2. What attitudes do youths in Molyko have towards reproductive health?
3. What are the practices done by youths in Molyko in respect to reproductive health?
4. What are the associated risk factors that lead to STIs among youths in Molyko?

Check out: Public Health Project Topics with Materials