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Assessment of adolescent and youth friendly services in primary healthcare facilities in two provinces in South Africa.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Health services for adolescents are increasingly recognised as a priority in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Adolescent and Youth Friendly Service (AYFS) approach has been promoted in South Africa by the National Department of Health and partners, as a means of standardising the quality of adolescent health services in the country. The objective of this paper is to detail the evaluation of AYFS against defined standards to inform initiatives for strengthening these services. METHODS:A cross-sectional assessment of AYFS was carried out in 14 healthcare facilities in a sub-district of Gauteng Province and 16 in a sub-district in North West Province, South Africa. Data on adolescent care and service management systems were collected through interviews with healthcare providers, non-clinical staff and document review. Responses were scored using a tool based on national and World Health Organisation criteria for ten AYFS standards. RESULTS:Mean scores for the ten standards showed substantial variation across facilities in the two sub-Districts, with Gauteng Province scoring lower than the North West for 9 standards. The sub-district median for Gauteng was 38% and the North West 48%. In both provinces standards related to the general service delivery, such as Standards 4 and 5, scored above 75%. Assessment of services specifically addressing sexual, reproductive and mental health (Standard 3) showed that almost all these services were scored above 50%. Exploration of services related to psycho-social and physical assessments (Standard 8) demonstrated differences in the healthcare facilities' management of adolescents' presenting complaints and their comprehensive management including psycho-social status and risk profile. Additionally, none of the facilities in either sub-district was able to meet the minimum criteria for the five standards required for AYFS recognition. CONCLUSION:Facilities had the essential components for general service delivery in place, but adolescent-specific service provision was lacking. AYFS is a government priority, but additional support for facilities is needed to achieve the agreed standards. Meeting these standards could make a major contribution to securing adolescents' health, especially in preventing unintended pregnancies and HIV as well as improving psycho-social management.

SUBMITTER: James S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6198437 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessment of adolescent and youth friendly services in primary healthcare facilities in two provinces in South Africa.

James Shamagonam S Pisa Pedro T PT Imrie John J Beery Moira P MP Martin Catherine C Skosana Catherine C Delany-Moretlwe Sinead S

BMC health services research 20181022 1

<h4>Background</h4>Health services for adolescents are increasingly recognised as a priority in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Adolescent and Youth Friendly Service (AYFS) approach has been promoted in South Africa by the National Department of Health and partners, as a means of standardising the quality of adolescent health services in the country. The objective of this paper is to detail the evaluation of AYFS against defined standards to inform initiatives for strengthening the ...[more]

PMID: 30348166

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Project description:IntroductionAdolescents and youths who need exceptional healthcare are the shapers and leaders of our global future. However, many of them are died prematurely, while others suffer from diseases partly because of the poor quality of health services. Thus, this study aimed to assess the quality of Adolescent and Youth-friendly Health Services (AYFHS) and associated factors in the public health facilities of Dehana district, Northeast Ethiopia.MethodsA facility-based quantitative cross-sectional study supported with a qualitative component was conducted from February 24 to March 30, 2020. The quality of AYFHS was measured using the Donbidean framework (structure, process and output component). Accordingly, a total of 431 adolescents and youths, five health facilities, twenty-five client-provider interaction observations, and nine key informant interviews were conducted. Binary logistic regression analysis was done, and variables with a p-value of < 0.05 and Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with its 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were used to measure the association. The qualitative data were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Then, Open Code 4.03 software was used to manage and analyze the data.ResultsThe quality of adolescent and youth-friendly health services was 58.8, 46.4, and 47.2% for structural, process, and output quality dimensions, respectively. The predictor variables for output quality were, being a student (AOR: 2.07, 95%CI: 1.07-3.40), farmers (AOR: 2.59, 95%CI: 1.25-5.39), own income sources (AOR: 1.99, 95%CI: 1.03-3.85), exempted services (AOR: 2.30, 95%CI: 1.43-3.71) and long waiting time (AOR: 3.8495%CI: 1.80-8.23).ConclusionsThe overall quality of adolescent and youth-friendly health services was still lower than the WHO good quality standards. The structural quality dimension was affected by the unavailability of adequate and trained health service providers, poor engagement of adolescents and youths in the facility governance structure, unavailability of guidelines, protocols and procedures. In contrast, the process quality dimension was also compromised due to the provider's poor compliance with the national AYFHS guidelines. Therefore, health facilities need to engage adolescents and youths in the health facility governance structure, and providers should comply with the national guideline.

Project description:BackgroundPsychological distress among young people is increasing in Northern Europe. According to established healthcare utilization theory, this will create a greater need for youth primary healthcare and subsequently lead to more help-seeking behavior by distressed young people. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the use of youth primary healthcare services and psychological distress in times of increasing mental health problems and increased service need.MethodsThis study consisted of five waves of repeated annual cross-sectional data collected from young people (aged 13-19) living in Norway between 2014 and 2018 (n = 368,579). Population-weighted and design-adjusted generalized linear regression with a log-link was used to examine the use of youth primary healthcare services over time.ResultsWe found that a large proportion of young people use primary healthcare services and that young people with high levels of psychological distress use primary healthcare services twice as much as their peers with low levels of psychological distress. In addition, between 2014 and 2018 both psychological distress and primary healthcare service utilization increased: psychological distress increased by 5% and total primary healthcare service use increased by 500 consultations per 1000 young people. Overall, psychological distress had a conditional association with youth primary healthcare service use and could account for between 16 and 66% of the change in the use of services between 2014 and 2018, depending on the service type. However, the absolute increase seen in the use of primary healthcare services was mainly driven by young people with low levels of psychological distress as opposed to young people with high psychological distress. This suggest a converging trend.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that there might be serious barriers between need and help-seeking behavior for young people with high levels of psychological distress and that the pattern of utilization among young people with lower distress may indicate overuse, possibly as an inadvertent consequence of a newly introduced school absence policy. While further research is needed to confirm these findings, our work may inform healthcare providers and policy makers about primary healthcare utilization trends among young people.

Project description:IntroductionRapid HIV tests have improved access to HIV diagnosis and treatment by providing quick and convenient testing in rural clinics and resource-limited settings. In this study, we evaluated the quality management system for voluntary and provider-initiated point-of-care HIV testing in primary healthcare (PHC) clinics in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa.Material and methodsWe conducted a quality assessment audit in eleven PHC clinics that offer voluntary HIV testing and counselling in rural KZN, South Africa from August 2015 to October 2016. All the participating clinics were purposively selected from the province-wide survey of diagnostic services. We completed an on-site monitoring checklist, adopted from the WHO guidelines for assuring accuracy and reliability of HIV rapid tests, to assess the quality management system for HIV rapid testing at each clinic. To determine clinic's compliance to WHO quality standards for HIV rapid testing the following quality measure was used, a 3-point scale (high, moderate and poor). A high score was defined as a percentage rating of 90 to 100%, moderate was defined as a percentage rating of 70 to 90%, and poor was defined as a percentage rating of less than 70%. Clinic audit scores were summarized and compared. We employed Pearson pair wise correlation coefficient to determine correlations between clinics audit scores and clinic and clinics characteristics. Linear regression model was computed to estimate statistical significance of the correlates. Correlations were reported as significant at p ≤0.05.ResultsNine out of 11 audited rural PHC clinics are located outside 20Km of the nearest town and hospital. Majority (18.2%) of the audited rural PHC clinics reported that HIV rapid test was performed by HIV lay counsellors. Overall, ten clinics were rated moderate, in terms of their compliance to the stipulated WHO guidelines. Audit results showed that rural PHC clinics' average rating score for compliance to the WHO guidelines ranged between 64.4% (CI: 44%- 84%) and 89.2% (CI: 74%- 100%).Ten out of eleven of the clinics were rated as moderate (70-89%). All clinic have scored highest for the following audit component: equipment; process control and specimen management; and facility ad safety, with 100%. Clinics obtained the lowest scores for the assessment audit component followed by process improvement and organisation, with 40.9% (CI: 15.7-66.1%), 45.5% (CI: 10.4-80.5%) and 56.8% (CI: 31.8 81.8%), respectively. A statistically significant correlation was observed between the following: category of staff performing the HIV rapid tests in the audited clinics and service and satisfactory audit component; weekly average number of patients using the audited PHC clinics and service and satisfactory audit component; number of HIV lay counsellors in the audited clinics and quality control audit component with p<0.05.DiscussionIn the small audit of primary healthcare clinics located within the rural part of KwaZulu-Natal, results revealed an overall moderate rating of the quality management system for rapid HIV testing. Improvements in the organisation, quality control, process improvement and assessment components could enable a higher quality assurance rating for rural HIV testing in KwaZulu-Natal.

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Assessment of adolescent and youth friendly services in primary healthcare facilities in two provinces in South Africa.

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Assessment of adolescent and youth friendly services in primary healthcare facilities in two provinces in South Africa.

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