| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 1 | Page : 16-19 |
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Reproductive health decision-making among adolescents in public secondary schools in Zaria, North-Western, Nigeria
Muhammed Sani Ibrahim1, Shadrach A Adamu2, Musa Yakubu3, Sulaiman S Bashir1
1 Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
2 General Hospital, Kawo, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Kaduna, Nigeria
3 Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria
Correspondence Address:
Muhammed Sani Ibrahim
Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Nigeria
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/archms.archms_22_17
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Introduction: Risky sexual behavior among adolescents is a major contributory factor to adolescent morbidity. This is mainly because during adolescence, cognitive, and psychological maturity coupled with increased need for autonomy translates into a greater desire for independent decision-making. The study assessed reproductive health decision-making and its sociodemographic determinants among adolescent senior secondary school students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 384 adolescent senior secondary school students selected through multi-stage sampling. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20 and results are presented in tables and charts. Results: Mean age of the respondents was 17.5 ± 1.3 years, and 170 (44.6%) were <18 years old. Reproductive health decision-making was good in 116 (30.1%). If they were sexually abused, 187 (48.4%) said that they would report first to their parents. Reproductive health decision-making showed statistically significant association with gender (P = 0.04), and class of the study (P < 0.0001), but not with age (P = 0.24), ethnicity (P = 0.86), religion (P = 0.16), and marital status (P = 0.99). Conclusion: Reproductive health decision was generally poor, and it was influenced by gender and class of the study. Therefore, Government should consider ways of improving reproductive health decision-making among the secondary school students, possibly by including it in their school curriculum. Future studies should identify locally applicable interventions to promote parent–child connectedness for improving reproductive health decision-making among adolescents.
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