Awareness of contraceptives use among youths aged 18-26 years in Thogoto market, kikuyu constituency -Kenya

Globally, the world health organization estimates that approximately 214 million women of child bearing age in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy but are not currently using any contraceptive method. A significant portion of these are youths aged 18–26, who face enormous challenges in accessing and using contraceptives. Awareness and use of contraceptives among the youth remains a challenge in Kenya. Youths in Kenya face considerable reproductive health challenges, including high adolescent pregnancy rates, with 29% of females aged 15–19 years being pregnant or having unwanted children at an early age and dropping out of school. Every year, about 13,000 Kenyan girls drop out of school due to accidental pregnancies. In addition, lack of contraceptive use may lead to spread of sexually transmitted infections including HIV, unsafe abortions, mental illnesses and other socio-economic problems. Barriers to contraceptive awareness and use include social stigma, cultural norms, economic constraints, lack of accessible healthcare, and provider-related issues such as inadequate training and negative attitudes. This study aimed at assessing the level of awareness and use of contraceptive methods among youths aged 18–26 years in Thogoto market, kikuyu constituency, Kiambu county. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Simple random sampling method was employed to recruit 384 participants into the study. Data was collected using structured and semi-structured questionnaires on contraceptive awareness, accessibility, use, and barriers to contraceptives use among youths aged between 18 and 26 years. Data was entered into Microsoft excel and analyzed using SPSS version 29. Participants were mostly aged 21-23 years (48.96 %) and predominantly single (83.33%), with a nearly equal gender distribution (50.78% males and 49.22% females). Awareness of contraceptive methods was high at 97.7% with majority of the participants having gotten the information from schools (50.8%) and health facilities (42.4%). Contraceptive use was reported by 72.4% of the participants, with natural methods and oral pills being the most commonly used methods. On contraceptives accessibility, about 83% of the participants report easy access. Barriers included fear of side effects (30.2%) and partner disapproval (38.5%). While awareness and accessibility are high, barriers such as fear of side effects and partner disapproval impact contraceptive use. In conclusion, contraceptives awareness and use were found to be high among youths aged 18 – 26 years in Thogoto market.