Abstract Background and Aim: The Government of India launched the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCH + A) in 2013 to include adolescents as a separate life stage to uplift the health of adolescents. Despite the interventions, the needs of adolescents remain unmet. In this background, the present study was undertaken to assess the knowledge and utilization of healthcare services under RMNCH + A among adolescent girls in the urban field practice area of a medical college in Bengaluru. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study using PPS was conducted among 230 adolescent girls from the urban field practice area of a medical college in Bengaluru. Details of sociodemographic, personal characteristics, menstrual history, dietary habits, knowledge, and utilization of various components of RMNCH + A were collected. Data were entered into MS EXCEL 2021 and analysed using SPSS 26 (IBM, NY, USA; SPSS Statistics 26). Results: Of the total subjects, 17% were school dropouts. Only 29.5% consumed weekly iron and folic acid supplementation (WIFS) given at school, 56.9% received bi-annual deworming, 78.3% of those going to government/aided schools were provided mid-day meals, 72.3% had regular preventive checkups conducted at school. Of the total, 151 (65.7%) had attained menarche, 98.7% had knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene. However, none of the subjects were provided with Suchi napkins, and none of the subjects were aware of adolescent-friendly health clinic at urban primary health centers. Conclusion: Utilization of various components was found to be good for education on nutrition and balanced diet, consumption of deworming tablets, mid-day meals, and preventive health up. There was poor utilization of services such as consumption of WIFS, education on noncommunicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health, and free sanitary napkins.
Niveditha et al. (Wed,) studied this question.