Reproductive health services utilization and its associated factors among Madawalabu University students, Southeast Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Youths in Sub-Saharan region including Ethiopia account for higher proportion of new HIV infections, maternal mortality ratios, and unmet need for reproductive health information and services. This study assessed reproductive health services utilization and its associated factors among Madawalabu University Students, Southeast Ethiopia.

METHODS: Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among regular under graduate Madawalabu University students in May 2014. Data were collected from randomly selected students through self-administered pre-tested structured questionnaire. Data were entered in to EpiData 3.1 and exported to SPSS-16.0 for analysis. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed.

RESULT: From the total 568 respondents 507(89.3%) of them knew modern family planning. 457(80.5%) of them had ever utilized at least one reproductive health services. Students who ever made discussion on VCT with health profession utilized the VCT two times than those hadn't made discussion (AOR 2.06, 95% CI 1.21-3.48). Discussion also triple reproductive health services utilization (AOR 3.76, CI 1.55-9.11).

CONCLUSION: Utilization of reproductive health services for the three indexed variables namely: modern contraceptives, STI diagnosis and treatment, and VCT is fair. But utilization of specific reproductive health services is under expectation. Discussion on reproductive health services between health worker and students, and focusing other identified factors are the way of reproductive health problems intervention in the University.