Perceived barriers to accessing pregnancy-related health information among married adolescent women: a qualitative study in Iran.

Abstract

To date, no study has been reported barriers to accessing pregnancy-related health information among married women below the age of 19 years. Indeed, the voice of the girls being married is absent in the literature. We sought to explore the barriers to accessing pregnancy-related health information from the perspective of Iranian married adolescent women.Qualitative study SETTING: The research was conducted in Mashhad city (healthcare centers) and Shahrood County (a maternity teaching hospital, and urban/rural healthcare centers) in Iran.and Data Collection. Twenty four married adolescent women aged 14 - 19 years were recruit through purposive sampling. Individual in-depth interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using conventional content analysis. Prolonged engagement with participants, maximum-variation sampling, member checking, peer deferring and external audit were used to enhance the rigor of the study.The results showed the three categories: "structural barriers," "individual barriers," and "socio-cultural barriers." The structural barriers category consisted of two subcategories, namely, poor quality of education and counseling in the healthcare centers, and transportation barriers. The two subcategories of the individual barriers category consisted of affective barriers and cognitive barriers. The socio-cultural barriers category included the following two subcategories: husband's decision making power and fear of being labeled infertile.The barriers identified in this study should be considered when designing educational interventions for married adolescent women. Moreover, further research is still needed to enhance current knowledge on this topic.