Where and how do young people like to get their Sexual and Reproductive health information?

Participants were enrolled from Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs)
within Mbeya region in any year of study, if they were
Tanzanians, aged 18-24 years and agreed to provide written informed consent prior to all study-related procedures. The study team used an individual self-administered
questionnaire using a tablet or smart phone through a web-based software (ODK)
or hard copy, which ever method the participant preferred. Pre-testing of the questionnaire was done on few HLI students from a nearby region prior to data collection; and
any emerging issues from the pre-testing were factored in to revise the
questionnaire in a more practical manner.
The
questionnaire was divided into sections, and collected information on socio-demographics
(age, religion, marital status, year of study at HLI, highest academic level
before current HLI, type of secondary school attended, permanent residence and
source of financial support); Sexual
and Reproductive health (ability to discuss sexual matters with a
parent/guardian, learning about sexual matters and Sexual and Reproductive health information
gap during early sexual experience).The web-based software (ODK) was designed with smart checks
for incomplete or ambiguous responses, and responses through the hard copy
questionnaire were reviewed for completeness at the end of each day by the
Research Assistant. Data was cleaned and analysed using statistical software
Stata version 14 for Windows (Statacorp,
College Station, TX 77845, USA). Data was summarised descriptively using
percentages and/or proportions for categorical variables, mean and respective
measure of dispersion for numerical variables.
Complete study information was given to all eligible
participants and the ones who agreed to participate, signed an informed consent
form prior to any study related activity. Ethical approval was granted by the
Mbeya Medical Research and Ethics Review Committee, Kilimanjaro Christian
Medical College Research Ethics and Review Committee, and National Health Research Ethics
Committee. Only participant’s study
identification number was used in the questionnaire.