Reproductive Health Care Information Seeking Behaviour among Educated Indian Youth- A Cross-sectional Analysis of an Indian University

• Published in: Journal of clinical and diagnostic research Vol. 14; no. 7; pp. 09 - 13
• Main Authors: Jain, Shubhika, Zulfeen, Momina, Goyal, Samarth, Sethi, Nikita, Pandey, Deeksha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 01.07.2020
• Subjects: health education; reproductive health politics; sex education; surveys; teenagers
• ISSN: 2249-782X; 0973-709X
• DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2020/43864.13833

Introduction: Indian youth is achieving great advancements in terms of education and awareness, but sexual and reproductive health services in India are poorly placed and doctors still play the main role in delivering reproductive health information. Indian adolescents (aged 10-19 years) represent over one-fifth of the population, the consequences of ignoring their reproductive health would affect the country’s economy and growth. Aim: To assess the insight, attitude and preference of reproductive health care among educated youth of Manipal region. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire based survey involving a sample population of 200, aged between 17-26 years, collected over a period of six months, conducted in an Indian University. The population may be representative of educated Indian youth belonging to middle and high socio economic groups. The study required the research participants to fill the questionnaire that contained 10 questions along with basic demographic data. Each of the 10 questions were specific and precise, directed towards five main domains- ‘insight’, ‘attitude’, ‘preference’, ‘reason’ and ‘suggestion’ The questionnaire was pretested for reliability and validity. SPSS 20.0 software was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate frequencies and the mean scores were compared using student’s t-test. All tests were twosided sided and p-value of <0.05 was considered significant”. Results: Insight among students above 21 years of age was significantly better with 37 (80.43%) choosing health care over web and non-web sources, whereas 114 (74.02%) of participants below 21 years of age recommend internet over other options. A total of 8 participants of >21 years actually went to health care for their sexual health related issues as compared to 18 of <21 years. participants. Most students found lack of privacy to be the most important factor preventing them from seeking health care. Conclusion: Informal Health care seeking behaviour is prevalent among the students, younger students and Nonscience students are more likely to seek web-based sources than formal health care.