ArticlePloS one2022
School-going adolescent girls' preferences and views of family planning services in Phalombe district, Malawi: A descriptive, cross-sectional study.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring barriers, facilitators, and preferences for the uptake of contraceptive methods among adolescents aged 15-19 years in Neno district, Malawi: a qualitative study.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2025Article
- Fertility awareness, perceived factors and approaches to improve contraceptive uptake among sexually active adolescent girls in Phalombe, Malawi: a mixed-methods study.Reproductive health · 2024Article
- A bivariate Poisson regression to analyse impact of outlier women on correlation between female schooling and fertility in Malawi.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- Association of migration and family planning use among women in Malawi: Evidence from 2019/2020 Malawi Multiple Indicators Survey.Contraception and reproductive medicine · 2023Article
- "I fear those things": non-uptake of contraceptives, and barriers to use among adolescent girls and young women at high risk of HIV infection in Kampala, Uganda.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow uptake of family planning services by adolescent girls remains a public health concern. An estimated 120 out of every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 years are having unplanned pregnancies in the sub-Saharan region. Between January and June 2020, the Phalombe District of Malawi reported 3,030 adolescent pregnancies. At this stage, most Malawian schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The high rate of adolescent pregnancies prompted the Ministry of Health to provide emergency contraceptives to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies among adolescents. The provision of emergency contraceptives would be effective if girls were willing and able to access these family planning services. We thus explored the views of school-going adolescent girls regarding their preferences for modern family planning methods including emergency contraceptives in Phalombe, Malawi.
methodsThis was a cross-sectional, descriptive study, where quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Participants included randomly sampled school-going adolescent girls from eight purposively selected secondary schools and eight randomly selected primary schools. All the schools were sampled from three purposively selected Traditional Authorities namely Nkhulambe, Jenala and Nkhumba which had reported high numbers of adolescent pregnancies. We analyzed the GeoPoints for schools and health facilities using ArcGIS, while adolescent girls' views were analyzed using STATA.
resultsParticipants included 388 adolescent girls, ranging in age from 10 to 19 years (median age = 15.5 years, SD = 1.9 years). Participants were hesitant to use contraceptives because they were afraid of being stigmatized and embarrassed, had to travel long distances to reach the service center, knew little about modern family planning and were afraid of medical complications.
conclusionThe uptake of family planning services by adolescent girls can be improved by bringing healthcare services closer to schools and homes. Family planning services should employ health workers who are non-judgmental and who are able to remove the stigma associated with family planning. Health workers should at any given opportunity, address the misconceptions and beliefs that adolescents have towards contraceptives. Community sensitization and health talks should be done to improve adolescent girls' understanding of family planning services.
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