Solomon, Danielle;
(2023)
"The need is greater than the options available": an exploration of unmet need within sexual and reproductive health among women aged 16 - 24.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Unmet need within sexual and reproductive health among women aged 16 - 24.pdf - Accepted Version Download (17MB) | Preview |
Abstract
An understanding of unmet need is a key part of addressing health inequalities. The aim of this project is to create an indicator that can be used to measure patterns of unmet need within sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in England. This project comprised five analyses. The first was a literature review investigating the measurement of unmet need within SRH. This revealed several gaps in the literature including: analyses of unmet need within sexual health, analyses of unmet need within reproductive health in high income countries, and longitudinal analyses of unmet need within SRH. The second was a qualitative Delphi exercise investigating the opinions of SRH professionals on the concept of unmet need. Participants felt that vulnerable populations are more likely to experience unmet need, and that an understanding of unmet need would improve service design and delivery. The third analysis used national datasets to investigate patterns of inequality in sexual and reproductive outcomes among women aged 16-24 in England. I found that rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea testing and diagnosis, rates of abortion and rates of repeat abortion were higher among women living in more deprived areas (when compared to women living in less deprived areas), and higher among Black Caribbean women (when compared to White British women). The fourth analysis involved the creation of the Index of Unmet Need within Sexual and Reproductive Health (IUSRH), which combined measures of the disparities in sexual and reproductive outcomes linked to deprivation and ethnicity. The fifth analysis was a spatial analysis of the IUSRH, which investigated geographical patterns of unmet need among women aged 16-24 in England. Overall, I found that the IURSH has the potential to aid understanding of unmet need within sexual and reproductive health, particularly when used alongside other tools that aim to measure unmet need.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | "The need is greater than the options available": an exploration of unmet need within sexual and reproductive health among women aged 16 - 24 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author's request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10168266 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
