Outlets for Sexual Health Services Amongst Youth in Public Secondary Schools in Mukuru Slums, Nairobi

Outlets for sexual health servicesare increasingly becoming a global public health concern in sexual reproductive health of the youth as they struggle to balance their pursuant and performance in education and the effect of their sexual behavior on their lives. Studies have indicated that access to basic sexual reproductive health services continue to jeopardize the health of the youth as they struggle to also cope up with the consequences associated with the growing health needs from emerging public health concerns. The Ministry of Health in Kenya is recording high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections including HIV amongst the youth. Urban residents have a significantly higher risk of HIV infections (7.2%) than rural residents (6.0%) A majority of annual new HIV/AIDS infections occur among youth aged 15-24 years, the majority of whom are in secondary school levels due to their high sexual activity. The main objective of this study was to determine outlets for sexual health services amongst youth in secondary schools in Mukuru slums in Nairobi. The study adopted a cross sectional descriptive design that utilized both quantitative and qualitative techniques of data collection. The study was conducted in three purposively selected secondary schools in Mukuru slum, Nairobi County amongst the youth aged 15 to 24 years. A sample size of 335 was determined and stratified sampling procedure was used. Data was collected using semi structured questionnaire and 6 focus group discussions which were both administered and conducted amongst the study population. This study received scientific and ethical approval from the Scientific Steering Committee at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Participants were taken through all the consenting processes prior to their acceptance to participate in the study. The results show that there were more females (57.8%) respondents than males (42.2%). Many of the female respondents (81.1%) indicated that they had first sex before they turned 10 years than few male respondents (12.2%). About 50% of respondents visited private facilities to seek medication services. Among those who visited public hospitals, 27% of the respondents sought services for consultation, lab, and medicine while 13% of the respondents indicated that they visited traditional healers. There were many females (21.8%) who indicated that they visited private hospitals for STI treatment. However, the type of outlet or facility (p-value 0.000