Abstract:
Background: Female adolescents are unduly disadvantaged regarding the risks of unintended
pregnancies that are associated with poor outcomes which often results in infant or maternal death.
This study sought to explore factors that influence female adolescents’ knowledge level of their sexual
and reproductive health (SHR) information in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern
Region of Ghana.
Methods: A cross‐sectional school‐based study was conducted using a self-administered structured
questionnaire. A purposive sampling method was used to select a total of 336 respondents from four
Senior High Schools in the municipality to participate in the survey. Data obtained was analyzed using
descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and a multivariate logistic regression.
Results: Findings from this study revealed that the majority of the students had good access to SRH
information where the teacher and the media play a crucial role as a source of information. Contrary to
the good access to health information, the majority (39.29%) of the respondents demonstrated a low level
of comprehensive knowledge. The result from the analysis further revealed that 28.57% of the
respondents admitting to being involved in sexual intercourse with 48.96% registering the use of
contraceptive at the time of the study. A Pearson’s chi-square test for association revealed that there is
a significant statistical association between the respondent’s access to SRH information with some of
their demographic characteristics and their main sources of information based on a predetermined
p-value lower than 0.05. Respondents exposed to social media as information source were found to be
nine times more likely to have access to SRH information compared to their counterparts, after
adjusting for all other covariates Conclusion: Sexual and reproductive health information is accessible to female adolescents but they
lack an adequate level of comprehensive knowledge, therefore, an effective education and
communication program is required to contribute towards the understanding of communicated
messages. Additionally, the data reveal that the sources of information are associated with the
respondents’ level of knowledge.
