The cost of health services is often assumed to be an important barrier to their use, especially by adolescents. Other social, cultural and physical access factors are also likely to be important in adolescents’ decisions to use family planning services, maternity care, abortion, post-abortion care and diagnostic and treatment services for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. Little effort has actually been directed to assessing the relative importance of cost as a barrier using existing data. The principal purpose of this investigation is to examine the evidence about the importance of adolescents’ willingness to pay (WTP) as a barrier to reproductive health services. Secondary analyses are performed on existing data sets from a selected Latin American, and African countries to assess WTP for 15 to 24 year olds. Preliminary findings reveal that WTP may not be the most critical factor in designing services for adolescents, because adolescents often name other barriers to care-- such as such as confidentiality concerns and provider attitudes-- as most important in their decision to utilize services. WTP should be considered in the context of other important factors that encourage or discourage youth from seeking services at clinics and other service delivery locations. Based on our review of existing data that include this important age group, further research designed specifically to study adolescents’ WTP and ability to pay (ATP) for reproductive health services is recommended.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to: 1. Better understand the barriers to adolescents' use of reproductive health services 2. Understand the concept of willingness to pay as one potential barrier to the use of reproductive heath services 3. Understand the gaps in existing knowledge in the area of cost as a barrier to adolescents' use of reproductive health services, and willingness to pay as a barrier to adolescents' use of reproductive health services
Keywords: Adolescent Health, Barriers to Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.