Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health self-care among women, healthcare providers, and other key informants: a mixed-methods study in South Africa and Zambia.
Reprod Health
; 20(1): 65, 2023 Apr 28.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37118835
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: "Self-care" refers to healthcare that does not have to be given by a provider, but that people can use themselves. In sexual and reproductive health (SRH), this includes medicines or supplies like pills and injections that people can use to prevent or test for pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. This study wanted to better understand women's interest in and use of SRH self-care and explore key informants' opinions of self-care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We surveyed 537 women in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa and Lusaka, Zambia in 20202021. We also conducted interviews with 39 women and 36 key informants, including healthcare providers, government officials, and community advocates. RESULTS: Women surveyed in South Africa were more interested than those in Zambia in learning more about self-care contraception, especially daily pills, emergency pills, and injections they could give themselves. In interviews, some key informants said that they do not tell women about self-care because they worried that women could hurt themselves or blame the provider if they experienced problems. COVID movement restrictions, transport costs, and inaccessible pharmacies were all barriers that key informants mentioned to accessing tests, tools, or contraceptive methods that women could give or use themselves. CONCLUSIONS: Women surveyed were interested in learning more about self-care and those interviewed reported minimal previous use of self-care methods besides condoms. Providers also have some concerns about women's ability to use self-care methods. Counseling on and providing self-care methods and supplies may have increased during COVID-19, but increasing access to self-care could help more women take care of their own sexual and reproductive healthcare.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Reproductive Health
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Qualitative_research
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
En
Journal:
Reprod Health
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Country of publication: