Social-Cultural Barriers to Accessing Family Planning Services Among Adolescent Girls in Nigeria: A Review

Introduction: Despite decades of efforts to improve family planning access in sub-Saharan Africa, uptake remains low especially among the poor and vulnerable populations. The low uptake level in many countries within the region is often linked to limitations in service provision as well as the socio-cultural factors in the region. In Nigeria, 32% of adolescent girls in rural areas, and 10% in urban areas have started childbearing. This adolescent population faces significant challenges with regard to sexual and reproductive health. This study aimed to synthesise the available evidence on the socio-cultural barriers hindering the provision of family planning services to these vulnerable adolescents in Nigeria. Methods: A systematic review study design was used to synthesise literature on the socio-cultural barriers to the provision of family planning services to adolescent girls in Nigeria. The search strategy yielded 1461 papers published between the years 2013 and 2022 from PubMed, Cochrane, CINAHL, and Scopus. The retrieved papers were systematically screened and 13 studies which met the inclusion criteria were included for the final synthesis following quality assessment. A data extraction table was used for collating data from the included papers. Results and Conclusion: Societal norms and religious beliefs, socio-economic status of an adolescent girl’s parents, and some biases from service providers were the most common socio-cultural barriers to accessing reproductive health services for adolescent girls in Nigeria. These challenges were found to be significantly interlinked one to another in that adolescent girls raised in homes that are in the higher socio-economic class may find it easier to access and receive family planning services when compared to those from poorer homes. Recommendations to address the identified challenges include raising awareness to change societal perceptions, training of family planning service providers, initiating social support programmes, involvement of men in the local communities, and involvement of clerics in churches and mosques.