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Clarifying the criteria for reproductive health counselling for adolescent girls by service providers: A qualitative study

Zahra Mahdikhani, Sonia Oveisi, Forozan Olfati

Background: Due to the worldwide priority of adolescent reproductive health and the importance of counselling in them, the purpose of this study was to determine counselling criteria regarding the reproductive health of adolescent girls from the point of view of service providers.

Methods: This is a qualitative study using content analysis method, which was conducted in 2017. Sampling method was purposeful. To collect data, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participation of midwives and family health care professionals working in health centers. Qualitative content analysis was done. First, the primary codes were extracted from typed interviews. Then the codes were given in the form of short and meaningful concepts. The same concepts were merged and given a general title. In this way, the reproductive health counselling criteria for adolescent girls were extracted.

Results: Reproductive health counselling criteria for adolescent girls was classified in five categories: counselling with educational approach, attention to the effect of intrapersonal, interpersonal and social factors on counselling goals, attention to the relationship of counselling components, attention to referral and triage system, preferential service delivery centers for counselling girls.

Conclusion: Health care providers have provided several criteria for counselling services for adolescents, where attention to the coordination among criteria is of paramount importance in planning for counselling. Additional studies are recommended, especially on referral and triage system in adolescent girls’ counselling.