HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOURS OF FEMALE ADOLESCENTS TOWARDS FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES WITHIN THE TAMALE METRPOLIS

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the health seeking behaviours of adolescents towards family planning services. Adolescent family planning seeking behaviour has dire consequences on their sexual and reproductive health. Therefore, these consequences cannot be over looked. An analytical cross sectional study design was used with a multi stage sampling technique to sample 412 respondents within six communities (400 adolescents and 12 health workers). Both questionnaires and interview guide were the data collection tools, SPSS version 25.0 was used to analyze the quantitative data, and the qualitative data was analysed manually. The results indicated that, respondents had fair knowledge (67%) on family planning and contraceptive use by age group for any method was higher among 16-19 age groups. Work status (0.001) and ethnicity (0.023) have a relationship with knowledge on family planning. The internet was the most used source of education on family planning. Age (0.000) and educational status (0.000) were associated with source of family planning education. Attitude of service providers, inadequate health education, religion, traditional beliefs, and financial challenges were the challenges faced by respondents in assessing family planning services. There is the need to strengthen school sexual health education and provide adolescent health corners.