Assessing health care quality in adolescent clinics, implications for quality improvement

Purpose: Adolescents are more exposed to risky health behaviors. However, many adolescents do not seek health care due to the poor quality of care. The purpose of this paper is to assess health care quality in adolescent clinics in Tema, a suburb of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: Cross-sectional survey design was adopted to collect data from 365 adolescent respondents. Data were analyzed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (version 20) using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Findings: The results demonstrate that adolescents perceived quality of care in adolescent clinics to be good. The significant predictors of adolescents’ overall perceptions of quality of care were provider competencies (β=0.311, p<0.01), adolescent’s health literacy (β=0.359, p<0.01), appropriate package of services (β=0.093, p<0.05), and equity and non-discrimination (β=0.162, p<0.01). Research limitations/implications: The study was conducted in an urban setting. Therefore, the generalization of findings must be done with caution. Originality/value: Adolescent health care quality in Ghana is below expectation. However, it has received little attention from researchers. This study provides empirical evidence for adolescent health care quality improvement in developing countries like Ghana.