Awareness, Utilization and Barriers of Sexual Reproductive Health Service among Adolescent Age 15-19 YRS Old in Arsi Zone Oromia Region Ethiopia

Background: In Ethiopia most of sexual reproductive health services are design for adults and they have no favorable condition for youth to utilize the service. Study conducted in Ethiopia indicated that only32% of youth utilized reproductive health service. Objective: To assess awareness, utilization and barriers of sexual and reproductive health service among adolescent age 15-19 old years in selected district of Arsi zone, Ethiopia. Methods: community-basedcross sectional study supported with qualitative study design conducted among 734 youth reside in Arsi Zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants, while purposive sampling used to select focus group. Data entry and analysis were carried out by EPI-info version 3.5.4, and SPSS version 21. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to test significant level and association of variables with 95% confidence interval and p-value <0.05 was taken as statically significant. Result: Out of 734 participants, 331 (43.7%) of adolescent had awareness about youth sexual and reproductive health service. The overall utilization of sexual reproductive service of adolescents were 30.1%. Adolescent had Pocket money AOR=1.73, 95% CI: 1.14- 2.80, adolescent accessed or near by the service AOR=2.53, 95% CI: 1.35- 4.45 were significantly associated with utilization of the services. Conclusion: This study had found that majority of adolescents were not utilizing the reproductive health service of adolescent. Among the factors that affect utilization of sexual and reproductive health service of adolescents were, Adolescent have pocket money and adolescents easily access sexual and reproductive health prone to more utilize the service than their counter parts. To improve utilization, awareness and accessibility of services the responsible bodies like, government, ministry of health, the regional government, the local leaders and parents should be actively involved in the program.