TY - JOUR
T1 - Technical efficiency of primary health care facilities in providing adolescent mental, sexual and reproductive health services in Ghana
T2 - A case study of selected districts in the Greater Accra Region
AU - Novignon, Jacob
AU - Fenny, Ama Pokuaa
AU - Amenah, Michel Adurayi
AU - Addom, Selasie
AU - Gladzah, Annick
AU - Ibrahim, Nassirou
AU - Tapsoba, Ludovic Deo Gracias
AU - Agyepong, Irene A.
AU - da Silva, Roxanne Borges
AU - Ensor, Tim
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Novignon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2025/6
Y1 - 2025/6
N2 - Primary healthcare (PHC) facilities have become essential in promoting adolescent healthcare, yet they face resource limitations that hinder their effectiveness. Ensuring the efficient use of available resources has therefore become pertinent. This study assessed the technical efficiency of primary health care facilities in providing adolescent mental sexual and reproductive health (AMSRH) services. Data was collected from 53 PHC facilities drawn from rural and urban locations in four districts in the Greater Accra region using a multi-stage sampling design. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) was employed to estimate the technical efficiency of each facility in optimizing outputs given available inputs. The findings revealed significant variation in efficiency, ranging from 0.91 to 0.04 with an average score of 0.60. Rural facilities and government-owned health facilities were more efficient compared to their urban and private counterparts. Facilities offering a wider scope of services to adolescents were also more efficient. However, the provision of adolescent mental health services was limited. Efforts should improve efficiency in the use of AMSRH services by properly aligning resource allocation to needs while expanding the range of services available to adolescents.
AB - Primary healthcare (PHC) facilities have become essential in promoting adolescent healthcare, yet they face resource limitations that hinder their effectiveness. Ensuring the efficient use of available resources has therefore become pertinent. This study assessed the technical efficiency of primary health care facilities in providing adolescent mental sexual and reproductive health (AMSRH) services. Data was collected from 53 PHC facilities drawn from rural and urban locations in four districts in the Greater Accra region using a multi-stage sampling design. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) was employed to estimate the technical efficiency of each facility in optimizing outputs given available inputs. The findings revealed significant variation in efficiency, ranging from 0.91 to 0.04 with an average score of 0.60. Rural facilities and government-owned health facilities were more efficient compared to their urban and private counterparts. Facilities offering a wider scope of services to adolescents were also more efficient. However, the provision of adolescent mental health services was limited. Efforts should improve efficiency in the use of AMSRH services by properly aligning resource allocation to needs while expanding the range of services available to adolescents.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105007303818
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0321265
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0321265
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105007303818
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 20
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 6 June
M1 - e0321265
ER -
