Reproductive Health matters among Indian adolescents - A qualitative study

Qualitative perspectives on Reproductive Health (RH) facilities, Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) still remain unexplored among Indian adolescents. The aim of our study was to explore the perceptions and awareness about reproductive health and its facilities among adolescents in two districts in India.
A qualitative study design using FGD was adopted. Stratified purposeful sampling was done to select participant (102 boys and 95 girls-aged 15-19 years) from two Indian districts in a series of 16 FGD. For data collection, a pre-tested FGD guide was used. All tape-recorded data was fully transcribed and thematic analysis using inductive coding was done.
A set of four themes, 12 subthemes, 52 open codes and 12 categories was developed. Proximity to parents to discuss adolescent changes in boys was least as compared to girls. They were totally unaware of state sponsored Reproductive health services. Girls had better access to health care schemes provided by the government.
Utilization of RH services by adolescents in two districts was poor. It would be advisable to carry out more research addressing the concerns of adolescent especially boys related to RH.