Figure 7: SRH services sought and obtained during the lockdown

Figure 7: SRH services sought and obtained during the lockdown.

Treatment for abortion SGBV Counselling and support Post-natal care Maternity and child delivery Antenatal care (ANC) Testing for other STIs/UTIs Pregnancy testing SRH counselling and information HIV/AIDS screening and testing Contraceptives / FP methods

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Contrace ptives / FP methods HIV/AIDS screening and testing

SRH counselli ng and informati on Pregnanc y testing Testing for other STIs/UTIs Antenatal care (ANC) Maternit y and child delivery

Postnatal care

SGBV Counselli ng and support Treatmen t for abortion

OBTAIN 92.86 100 91.67 100 92.86 100 100 100 100 100 SEEK 85.71 72.92 41.38 92.59 66.67 93.33 92.31 80 40 75

The three topmost sought services by young people in Mayuge district were antenatal care (93.33%), pregnancy testing (93%), and maternal and child delivery (92.31%). Contraceptives and treatment for abortion were sought by 85.71% and 75% of young people in Mayuge respectively. On the other hand, the least sought services were SGBV counselling, SRH counselling and information and testing for other STIs which were sought by 40%, 41.38% and 66.67% of the young people who expressed a need for them, respectively. Again, the Pearson Chi-square value of 0.450 is much higher than the alpha level of 0.05 for a statistically significant relationship to conclude that there is a difference between intervention and control areas regarding young people’s ability to seek SRH services.

The majority of the young people interviewed reportedly obtained the needed services from a public health facility, followed by a private for-profit facility and private not for profit facility, accounting for 60.64%, 14.89% and 5.32%. These results are also consistent with previous studies on access to and utilization of SRH studies among young people. For instance, in their study on the impact of Youth-Friendly Family Planning Services in Uganda, Asingwire, Muhangi, Kyomuhendo, and Leight (2019) found out that more young people opted for public health facilities such as hospitals and health centres as their source of contraceptives. The authors attributed this to the establishment of separate youth-friendly service points in these facilities.

In this study, young people whose need for SRH services was not translated into positive health-seeking behaviour were asked about the reasons underlying this phenomenon. As seen in figure 8 below, the dominant reason for not seeking services was lack of