Журнал исследований и разработок в области медицинского образования

Awareness of Health Services Among Sexually Abused Secondary School Teenagers in Rivers State

Abstract

Georgy O Obiechina and Idoniboyeobu Frances Opubo

Background: The study investigated Awareness of health services among sexually abused secondary school teenagers. Teenage sexual abuse is a situation where a teenager suffers from serious mental and physical injury inflicted upon its victim by reason of sexual exploitation. The aim of this study was to establish a greater awareness of the association between sexual abuse and health care utilization.

Methods: The study was conducted in female secondary school students who are within the age range of 13-19 years in Kalabari Kingdom of Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive survey and correlation research design. The population for the study comprises of 738 female secondary school students. A structured and self-administered questionnaire was the instrument used to collect data for the study. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through test retest method, using Pearson product moment correlation to ascertain its reliability. Inferential statistics was used to analyze the variables at 0.05 level of significant.

Results: The findings showed that the respondents were aware of the general health services for the sexually abused teenagers with mean score of ͞x= 2.62 ± 0.54, the standard error was 0.020. The result showed that the Health services are not significantly been utilized by the sexually abused secondary school teenagers in Kalabari Kingdom of Rivers State (t_(725,0.025)=0.222, p>0.05). The R-square value of 0.144 showed roughly the contribution of 14.4% of awareness of healthcare service to the utilization. The R-square value of 0.355 showed roughly the contribution of 35.5% of availability of health service to the utilization.

Conclusion: The study concluded that awareness of health Services were relatively a significant predictor of utilization of health services. Awareness of the health services for the sexually abused teenagers was negatively related with the utilization of health services.