Assessing the adequacy of sexual health among adolescent Haitians in batey communities surrounding La Romana, The Dominican Republic

Issue

Undocumented Haitian migrants typically work in rural Dominican sugarcane-cutting communities known as bateyes. Health data, particularly concerning adolescents, is limited. Given endemic poverty, limited health access, and sexual health risks faced by adolescents, our study assessed sexual health knowledge in this age group.

Descriptions

Focus groups were conducted to identify key sexual health concerns among batey adolescents. A survey tool was subsequently developed to capture demographic information, the respondent’s top health concern, and desired information source for that health concern. 929 adolescents from grades 7-12 were surveyed in six schools across four bateyes around La Romana. 

Lessons Learned

The top three perceived needs respondents described included: menstruation (25.8%), HIV (21.9%), and family planning (13.5%). On stratifying by sex, discordance was noted around menstruation (89.2% female, 10.8% male) and HIV (67.1% male, 32.9% female), with little difference in family planning (47.2% male, 52.8% female). Parents were the most commonly identified desired information source; this was uniform irrespective of perceived need.

Recommendations

The female preponderance of respondents concerned with menstruation reflects previous developing-world literature linking menstruation onset with stigma, lost school time, and social repercussions. HIV concerns, predominantly expressed by male respondents, might be related to the proportional difference between sexes around reported sexual activity. Finally, an equal proportion of male and female respondents identifying family planning suggests an opportunity to provide targeted promotion efforts. Future research is needed to examine these hypotheses, further characterize reasons behind the concerns, and determine potentially effective interventions.