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Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy

BACKGROUND: Adolescent girls and young women in Uganda face numerous public health challenges including high HIV prevalence, teenage pregnancies, poor sexual and reproductive health rights, child marriage, and violence. OBJECTIVES: This evidence review explores which interventions focusing on the em...

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Autores principales: Lewington, Jessica, Geddes, Rosemary, Gabagaya, Grace
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Makerere Medical School 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10117494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37092040
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v22i4.47
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author Lewington, Jessica
Geddes, Rosemary
Gabagaya, Grace
author_facet Lewington, Jessica
Geddes, Rosemary
Gabagaya, Grace
author_sort Lewington, Jessica
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Adolescent girls and young women in Uganda face numerous public health challenges including high HIV prevalence, teenage pregnancies, poor sexual and reproductive health rights, child marriage, and violence. OBJECTIVES: This evidence review explores which interventions focusing on the empowerment of adolescent girls and young women to address these challenges are suitable for Ugandan policy. METHODS: We reviewed the literature to identify experimental studies and systematic reviews of interventions which improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and/or prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Two authors independently reviewed the studies identified through a comprehensive search strategy and assessed their quality. From this evidence base, two policy options were explored in depth considering benefits, harms, equity impacts, and costs, given the Ugandan context. RESULTS: The screen yielded 47 studies, of which 12 remained after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and relevance, applicability and quality assessment. Feasible policy options included: a vertical cash-incentive approach at a national or local level to support girls' attainment of education; and a horizontal integrated community approach focusing on skills and knowledge building. A combination of both is recommended for young female empowerment in Uganda, allowing for the full range of socio-cultural and economic drivers to be targeted. CONCLUSION: Research into the link between female empowerment and sexual and reproductive health outcomes is still in early development. This review contributes to evidence on this topic and outlines an approach that is potentially suitable for adoption across similar LMICs in Africa.
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spelling pubmed-101174942023-04-21 Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy Lewington, Jessica Geddes, Rosemary Gabagaya, Grace Afr Health Sci Articles BACKGROUND: Adolescent girls and young women in Uganda face numerous public health challenges including high HIV prevalence, teenage pregnancies, poor sexual and reproductive health rights, child marriage, and violence. OBJECTIVES: This evidence review explores which interventions focusing on the empowerment of adolescent girls and young women to address these challenges are suitable for Ugandan policy. METHODS: We reviewed the literature to identify experimental studies and systematic reviews of interventions which improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and/or prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Two authors independently reviewed the studies identified through a comprehensive search strategy and assessed their quality. From this evidence base, two policy options were explored in depth considering benefits, harms, equity impacts, and costs, given the Ugandan context. RESULTS: The screen yielded 47 studies, of which 12 remained after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and relevance, applicability and quality assessment. Feasible policy options included: a vertical cash-incentive approach at a national or local level to support girls' attainment of education; and a horizontal integrated community approach focusing on skills and knowledge building. A combination of both is recommended for young female empowerment in Uganda, allowing for the full range of socio-cultural and economic drivers to be targeted. CONCLUSION: Research into the link between female empowerment and sexual and reproductive health outcomes is still in early development. This review contributes to evidence on this topic and outlines an approach that is potentially suitable for adoption across similar LMICs in Africa. Makerere Medical School 2022-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10117494/ /pubmed/37092040 http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v22i4.47 Text en © 2022 Lewington J et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee African Health Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Articles
Lewington, Jessica
Geddes, Rosemary
Gabagaya, Grace
Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title_full Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title_fullStr Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title_full_unstemmed Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title_short Female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in Uganda: evidence reviews for policy
title_sort female empowerment to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and prevent violence in adolescent girls and young women in uganda: evidence reviews for policy
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10117494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37092040
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v22i4.47
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