Youth clubs’ contributions towards promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Machinga District, Malawi

Background: In Malawi more than 50% of the population are young people less than 24 years old. Adolescents and young people face a lot of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges such as unplanned and early pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS and abusive intimate relationships. Provision of SRH services through Youth clubs is one strategy that has potential to contribute to addressing the SRH challenges. We conducted a study in Machinga district, southern Malawi to assess the contributions of youth clubs towards promotion of SRH services.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in 2014 among youths aged 15 – 24 years. The participants were drawn from Machinga boma and Liwonde Township. We used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were collected using questionnaires, while Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key informant interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Quantitative data were analysed by estimating proportions and Chi square tests while thematic content analysis was used for qualitative data. The study was approved by University of Malawi’s College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC).
Results: Frequently offered services in youth clubs were HIV and AIDS education reported by 48.4% of the study participants, STI education (16.7%), family planning(16.7%) and life skills education (9.7%). On service utilisation there was no association between attendance to youth clubs and HIV Testing Counselling (χ² =0.76, p=0.4) and there was no association between attendance to the youth clubs and family planning utilisation (χ² =3.1, p=0.3). Condom use was the most used contraceptive method among the study participants. Misconception, accessibility and poor attitude of health workers were some of the factors reported as contributing to low utilisation of family planning methods. All youth club participants, reported by 89 study participants and only 29.4% of club non-attendees had adequate SRH knowledge. The services provided by health workers to youth clubs reported by study participants were HIV and AIDS education, HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and condom distribution.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight the need of youth clubs to promote SRH services.Efforts should be made to ensure that the identified challenges are dealt with to ensure effective participation of youth clubs.

Keywords
sexual; reproductive; HIV and AIDS; youth friendly; health services; Malawi