Abstract:
Background: Comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights care, including family planning, is not only a health and rights issue but it is developmental necessity, as it also improves livelihoods and promotes economic growth. Therefore, providing quality reproductive health services to women, men, and adolescents and ensuring consistent contraceptive prevalence rate growth is a priority for the Government of Ghana. Improving the contraceptive prevalence rate and increasing the uptake of long-term family planning will provide multiple benefits to Ghana by accelerating development and reducing pressure on the nation’s resources.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was used to estimate the level of utilization of family planning by female adolescents in the Biakoye District. The study primarily relied on questionnaires to sample a total of 344 respondents for the survey. Descriptive statistics involved the use of frequencies and percentages while the inferential statistics adopted the Chi-square test and binary logistics analysis which reported odds ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals signifying the level of precision.
Results: Respondents with high-level knowledge had 1.667 (95% CI: 1.016 - 2.735) times the odds of utilizing family planning methods compared to their counterparts with low-level knowledge. Similar findings were detected with the highest level of education attained by the respondents; where those with basic level education had 2.854 (95% C1: 0.988 - 8.241) times the odds of utilizing family planning methods compared to their counterparts that had no formal education. Consequently, those with secondary level education had an even higher odds of 3.186 (95% C1: 1.009 - 10.055) in utilizing family planning methods than their counterparts who had no formal education. Furthermore, the odds of utilizing family planning methods were higher, 1.796 (95% CI: 1.013 – 3.184) among respondents who were not on the health insurance scheme compared to the card-bearing members. The odds of utilizing family planning methods, though, tended to diminish with the age of respondents and the community where they resided.
Conclusion: The fact that utilization of family planning by the female adolescents tended to increase with their knowledge and awareness of contraceptive methods, and educational level, suggests that education also empowers women to make better decisions concerning their reproductive health.
