Youth-friendly reproductive health services in Jordan from the perspective of the youth: a descriptive qualitative study.

Purpose: This study aims at describing the needs for reproductive health services among Jordanian youth, identifying problems youth encounter when using reproductive health services, and identifying youths' perceptions of the characteristics of youth-friendly reproductive health services.

Methods: A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted on a convenience sample of 60 young men (n = 33) and women (n = 27) (age 12-18 years) selected from the three regions of Jordan. The focus groups were audio taped, and content analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results: The results revealed that the participants' knowledge about aspects of reproductive health was limited or inadequate. The participants indicated their need for reproductive health information and quality services. The major barriers to using reproductive health services were unpleasant facilities, unprofessional conduct and ill-informed professionals. Youth expressed many ideas about how services could be improved to be more 'youth friendly'.

Conclusions: The findings of this study can be useful to health services planners and healthcare providers to improve services and start youth-friendly reproductive health services in Jordan and to develop educational programmes that may improve healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes and advance their interpersonal skills for working with youth.