Assessing Barriers to Contraceptive Use amongst Adolescents in the Safroko Chiefdom, Bombali District, North East of Sierra Leone

At least 200 million women want to use safe and effective family planning methods, but are unable to do so because they lack access to information and services or the support of their husbands and communities according to UNFPA.

In a country like Sierra Leone where access to family planning is limited and coupled with the religious and cultural beliefs and practices, many of the women and especially those in the rural areas face numerous barriers to accessing and utilizing family planning services. Understanding some of these barriers can contribute to the development of health promotion strategies and/or influencing policy development in the promotion of family planning uptake not only in the study community but the country as a whole. The main aim is to investigate factors that limit access and utilization of family planning services by adolescents in the study area. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. Respondents were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Questionnaires and observational checklists were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using Excel.

The results revealed that, a total of 261 respondents were interviewed about the use of contraceptives, 64% are using modern methods, 18% are using natural method. 53% of the respondents are using family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancy, 42.6% said it was not easy to get family planning commodities. 39% of the respondents got their information from health workers. The study further revealed that Individual and community characteristics were significant predictors of use of modern contraceptives in Safroko limba chiefdom and thus these factors should be taken into account in programming for family planning in the country.