Table 1 characteristics of included studies exploring barriers to access and facilitators of the utilisation of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services among the youth
Authors name and year | Country | Study settings | Study design | Aim and objective | Approach | Age and sex | Findings | CASP quality assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mulaudzi et al. 2018 (50) | South Africa | Hospital | Cross sectional | To explore barriers to providing adolescent friendly sexual and reproductive health services | Focus group discussion and semi structured interviews | Both female and male | Barriers; health care providers attitude, Counsellors reported inadequate training to address adolescent psychosocial issues, including adolescents-specific ages as counsellors | High quality |
Godia et al. 2014 (47) | Kenya | Health care facilities and youth centers | Cross sectional | Understanding of the SRH problems young people face and document perceptions of available SRH services as reported by young people themselves. explored experiences and perceptions of young people | Focus group discussion and indepth interviews | 15–24 boys and girls | Barriers; in their responses were broad and reflect the cultural, social and economic environment in which they live Facilitators; Recreational activities attract the boys. Increasing awareness through outreaches | Medium |
Helamo et al. 2017 (42) | Ethiopia | Institutions | Cross sectional | Assesses factors affecting adolescents and youths friendly reproductive health service utilisation among high school students in Hadiya zone, Ethiopia | Quantitative | 15–24 years female and male | Barriers; Youths with a good knowledge of the type of A/YFSRHS were more likely to utilize the service than their counterparts, utilisation levels were low and youth were unaware of the services being provided | Medium |
Ajike et al. 2016 (44) | Nigeria | Rural and urban | Cross sectional | The knowledge of youths on available adolescent/youth friendly services (A/YFRHS) in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria | Quantitative | 15–24 years boys and girls | Barriers; The participants knew what adolescent/youth friendly services were but did not know where to get these services from because they were not aware of the available A/YFRHS facilities | High quality |
Self et al. 2018 (48) | Malawi | Community | Qualitative | To explore the perspectives of youth and adults about the drivers and barriers to youth accessing family planning and their ideas to improve services | Focus group discussion | 15–24 years female and male | Barriers; to youth accessing family planning included contraception misconceptions, the costs of family planning services, and negative attitudes. Parents had mixed views on FP, | High quality |
Atuyambe et al. 2015 (51) | Uganda | Urban and peri urban | Qualitative | To assess the sexual reproductive health needs of the adolescents and explored their attitudes towards current services available | Focus group discussions | 10–24 years male and female | Recommendations; establishing adolescent-friendly clinics with standard recommended characteristics (sexuality information, friendly health providers, a range of good clinical services such as post abortion care | High quality |
Chandra-Mouli et al. 2013 (39) | Tanzania | Urban and rural | Survey | To extend the reach of Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) in the country | Qualitative | 15–24 years female and male | Barriers; poor knowledge, it had received reports that the quality of the AFHS being provided by some organizations was poor | High quality |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Recommendations/policy; standardized definition of AFS | Â |
Zewdie et al. 2018 (49) | Ethiopia | In schools | Cross sectional | Young people’s perceptions and barriers towards the use of sexual and reproductive health services in Southwest Ethiopia | Focus group discussion | 15–24 years female and male | Barriers; poor perceptions about SRH, feeling of shame, fear of being seen by others, restrictive cultural norms, lack of privacy, in available services | High quality |
Rukundo et al. 2015 (52) | Uganda | Community | Cross sectional | Views concerning factors affecting availability, accessibility and utilization of teenager friendly antenatal services in Mbarara Municipality, southwestern Uganda | Key informant interviews | 15–19 years female and male | Barriers; health workers described their experience with teenagers as challenging due to their limited skills when it comes to addressing adolescent-specific needs | Medium |
Eremutha et al. 2019 (40) | Nigeria | Rural and urban areas | Stratified and purposive | To generate increased understanding of the barriers that limit youth access to sexual and reproductive health services(SRH) offered by Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Nigeria | Mixed method | 10–24 female and male | Facilitators; community mobilization for awareness creation and support on SRH issues will support youth to better access Barriers; lack of awareness, negative attitude of health workers, cost of service and parents perception or fear | High quality |
Betebebu Mulugeta et al. 2019 (53) | Ethiopia | Facility based | Cross sectional | To assess youth-friendly service quality and associated factors at public health facilities in Arba Minch town, Southern Ethiopia | Quantitative | 15–19 female and male | Facilitators; comfort and providers sex, waiting time, place of YFS, are factors which are significantly associated with client satisfaction in a health facility | High quality |
Ayehu et al. 2016 (43) | Ethiopia | Community | Cross sectional | To assess young people’s sexual and reproductive health service utilization and its associated factors in Awabel district, Northwest Ethiopia | Quantitative | 15–24 years male and females | Facilitators; Young people from families of higher family expenditure, lived with mothers, participated in peer education and lived near to a Health Center were more likely to utilize SRHS at youth centers | High quality |
Binu et al. 2018 (6) | Ethiopia | School based | Cross sectional | To assess utilisation of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services and its associated factors among secondary school students in Nekemte town, Ethiopia | Quantitative | 10–24 years female and male | Barriers; Inconvenient times, lack of privacy, religion, culture, and parent prohibition were barriers to SRH service uptake cited by the school youths | Low |
James et al. 2018 (35) | South Africa | Health facilities | Cross sectional | To detail the evaluation of AYFS against defined standards to inform initiatives for strengthening these services | Qualitative | 15–24 years male and female | Barriers; Facilities had the essential components for general service delivery in place, but adolescent specific service provision was lacking especially the sexual and reproductive health services | Medium |
Geary et al. 2014 (41) | South Africa | Rural health facilities | Survey | Investigate the proportion of facilities that provided the Youth Friendly Services programme and examine healthcare workers’ perceived barriers to and facilitators of the provision of youth friendly health services | Qualitative | 12–24 years female and male | Barriers; lack of youth-friendly training among staff and lack of a dedicated space for young people, health workers attitude, did not appear to uphold the right to access healthcare independently. breaches in young people’s confidentiality | High quality |
Motuma et al. 2016 (45) | Ethiopia | Community | Cross sectional | to assess the extent of youth friendly service utilization and the associated factors among the youth | Mixed methods | 15–24 years female and male | Barriers; source of information and having knowledge about services were associated with utilisation, negative perception about counselling affected the outcomes | High quality |
Renju et al. 2010 (13) | Tanzania | Health facilities | Survey | A process evaluation of the tenfold scale up of an evaluated youth friendly services intervention in Mwanza Region, Tanzania, in order to identify key facilitating and inhibitory factors from both user and provider perspectives | Mixed methods | 15–24 years female and males | Barriers; scale up faced challenges in the selection and retention of trained health workers and was limited by various contextual factors and structural constraints | High quality |
Obonyo Perez Akinyi 2009 (24) | Kenya | Community | Cross sectional | Examined how those factors determined or affected the utilization patterns of YFRHS by the youth. mitigating and addressing challenges to scale up | Mixed methods | 10–24 years female and male | Facilitators; level of education, type of school and youth’s awareness about existence of reproductive health facility and services offered were significantly associated with utilization | Medium |
Chimankpam Williams Uzoma 2017 (46) | Nigeria | Health facility | Cross sectional | To assess the utilization of youth friendly health services by young people in Port Harcourt and factors that affect utilisation | Mixed methods | 15–24 years female and males | Barriers; low knowledge levels Facilitators; Friends/family/contemporary and notice board were major sources of information | High quality |
Berhe et al. 2016 (54) | Ethiopia | Community | Cross sectional | Assess utilization of youth-friendly services and associated factors in Mekelle city | Mixed methods | 15–29 years females and males | Barriers; negative attitude towards youth friendly service utilization Facilitator; awareness and prior knowledge were predictors of utilisation | Medium |