The Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at Ludwig Maximilians Universität Munich, the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) in Uganda have been engaged since 2016 in a partnership, working together to improve the health of young people and adolescents. The focus is on sexual and reproductive health.
Context:
Uganda has a high prevalence of teenage pregnancies, with around 25% of 15- to 19-year-olds becoming pregnant. Teenage pregnancies pose a whole range of health, social and economic risks to mother and child. Additionally, the likelihood of these individuals becoming pregnant again while still very young stands at over 50%, with socio-demographic factors such as poverty, low levels of education and previous miscarriages also increasing the probability of such repeat pregnancies. It is thus important to provide support to girls and young women, and particularly important to examine the impact of post-natal group interventions on the use of contraception and on the occurrence of subsequent pregnancies.
Activities:
-\tSituation analysis and development of suitable interventions
-\tImplementation and adaptation of pilot intervention for developing health provider capacities and of the group intervention, and introduction
-\tMonitoring and comprehensive evaluation of the pilot intervention
Results:
The project will expand the capacities of health staff in the area of sexual and reproductive health. This will improve the quality of services for young people at primary health care facilities. Ongoing efforts by the government to provide effective health education to young people will be supplemented. In addition to developing the capacities of health sector staff, this North-South cooperation arrangement will also improve the research capabilities of the MUST research team, including the provision of support to Master’s students and PhD candidates, by means of research support and publications.
The MUST has introduced a process for integrating this topic into its training programmes and research, and initiated activities for involving the population. Consequently, the long-term perspective of the project is to establish a research and training centre within the MUST for adolescent and young adult health.