Volume 7 • Issue 6 • 1000576 Open Access Research Article J o u r n a l o f A I D S & C li n i c a l R e s e a r c h ISSN: 2155-6113 J AIDS Clin Res ISSN: 2155-6113 JAR an open access journal Abiodun et al., J AIDS Clin Res 2016, 7:6 DOI: 10.4172/2155-6113.1000576 Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Service Utilization among In- school Rural Adolescents in Nigeria Olumide Abiodun 1 *, Oluwatosin Olu-Abiodun 2 , Franklin Ani 1 and Obafemi Sotunsa 1 1 Babcock University, Ilishan, Nigeria 2 The School of Nursing, Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria *Corresponding author: Olumide Abiodun, Department of Community Medicine, Benjamin Carson (Snr) College of Medicine, Babcock University, Ilishan, Nigeria, Tel: +234 703 856 9725; E-mail: olumiabiodun@gmail.com Received April 25, 2016; Accepted May 09, 2016; Published May 16, 2016 Citation: Abiodun O, Olu-Abiodun O, Ani F, Sotunsa O (2016) Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Service Utilization among In-school Rural Adolescents in Nigeria. J AIDS Clin Res 7: 576. doi:10.4172/2155-6113.1000576 Copyright: © 2016 Abiodun O, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Knowledge; Rural Nigeria; Service utilization; Sexual and reproductive health; In-school adolescents Introduction World Health Organization identifes adolescence as the period of human growth and development that occurs post-childhood and before adulthood, from ages 10 to 19. Te period has seen many changes over the past few decades, namely, the earlier onset of puberty, later marriage, urbanization, globalization, and changing sexual attitudes and behaviors [1]. Adolescents are not quite capable of understanding complex concepts, or the relationship between behaviors and consequences, or the extent of control they have or can have over health decisions making including that related to sexual and reproductive behavior. Tis makes them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and high-risk sexual behaviors and reproductive health problems [1,2]. Adolescents constitute about 20% of the world’s population [2]. Contrary to popular beliefs, there is a signifcant burden of disease during the adolescence years. Indeed, nearly 35% of the global disease burdens have their roots in adolescence [3]. Today there are 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide with nearly 90% of them living in developing countries [2,4]. Over the past decade, adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) concerns have increasingly been on national agendas. Tis concern has largely been driven by the high burden of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STI) among young people, early childbearing, and risky sexual behaviors among adolescents [5,6]. However, this concern has not frequently been transformed into action [7]. Te reproductive health needs of adolescents and other youth remain poorly understood and under-served in many parts of the world [8]. Adolescent-friendly reproductive health services (AFRHS) is an appropriate and efective strategy to address sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of adolescents [9,10]. Despite 20% of the world population being adolescents [5], their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs have neither been researched nor addressed adequately [2,11]. Early and unprotected sexual activity and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS are still quite prevalent among rural adolescents [2,12]. Te poor status of ASRH in Nigeria is a major cause for concern. It is estimated that 1.2% and 2.9% of young Nigerian males and females are infected with HIV [13]. According to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey, only a few females (2%) and male (4%) adolescents had HIV counseling and testing in the previous 12 months [14]. Nigerian adolescents now engage in sexual activities at an earlier age than in the past [15]. Te proportion of young people who have had sexual intercourse before the age of 15 years is reported to be 11.9% [16]. Te adolescent fertility rate per 1000 women in Nigeria is more than double of the global rate [17]. About one out of every Abstract Introduction: Very minimal efforts have been made, especially in rural settings to address adolescent sexual and reproductive health concerns, or to provide the required sexual and reproductive health services. The Study of adolescents’ knowledge, services utilization, and associated factors is pertinent to the design of appropriate program interventions. Materials and methods: A junior secondary school-based cross-sectional study of 714 eligible Nigerian adolescents interviewed with the use of self-administered questionnaires. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results: About half of the respondents were knowledgeable about sexually transmitted infections while 31% were knowledgeable about fertility issues. The overall mean score for sexual and reproductive knowledge was 28.08±9.70 (out of a maximum of 48). The predictors of being knowledgeable were being male (AOR=3.048, p=0.028), and having regular access to a telephone (AOR=1.487, p=0.029) and the internet (AOR=1.554, p=0.022).Almost two- thirds, (64.7%), of the respondents, had ever heard about sexual and reproductive health services while 51.0% had ever used the services. Schools were the main sources of information (29.7%). The predictors of service utilization were knowledge, regular access to telephone and parent-adolescent communication (p<0.001). Conclusion: Sexual and reproductive health knowledge of in-school rural adolescents in Nigeria is fair but some misconceptions still exist. Service utilization, however, remains low largely due to lack of awareness. It is, therefore, important to design interventions that increase awareness of sexual and reproductive health issues; correct existing misconceptions, and to showcase and increase available RSH services using veritable tools including telephone and the internet.