ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Adolescent Reproductive Health and Well-being
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1623714
Sexual and Reproductive Health Service Use of Unmarried Adolescents in Morogoro, Tanzania: Insights from a Cross-Sectional Household Survey
Provisionally accepted
- 1Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- 2School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Adolescents in Tanzania represent a dynamic group that significantly influences public health trends, particularly in sexual and reproductive health. Despite the availability of adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS), their utilization remains low, especially among unmarried adolescents. This potentially exposes them to risky sexual behaviors, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This paper examines the use of SRHS by unmarried adolescents in Tanzania and the factors associated with it. Methods: A cross-sectional household survey was conducted over eight months among 312 unmarried adolescents (15-19 years) from Morogoro Municipal and Mvomero District, Tanzania. Data collection utilized the World Health Organization (WHO)-approved Cleland questionnaire, and analysis was performed using STATA 18. To identify factors associated with service utilization, bivariate Chi-square tests and multivariable modified Poisson regression analyses were performed, with significance set at p < 0.05.Results: Among 312 unmarried adolescents, 18% had ever used SRH services. Use was significantly higher among those who had worked for pay (aRR=1.98, p=0.025) and those with sexual relationship experience (aRR=2.27, p=0.007).This paper found persistently low uptake of SRHS among unmarried adolescents in Tanzania, despite strong national policy commitments to improve access. This highlights the gap between policy and the everyday realities of adolescents, shaped by work and relationships. Effective solutions require youth-centered interventions grounded in social spaces, peer networks, and digital platforms to improve service utilization.
Keywords: Unmarried adolescents, Adolescents' health, Sexual and reproductive health, health service utilization, Tanzania
Received: 06 May 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morris, Chombo, Ulrich and Kakoko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Baraka Malaki Morris, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.