article · Healthcare
A scoping review synthesised evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected sexual and reproductive healthcare and behaviours. Drawing on studies identified across multiple academic databases, the review mapped twenty relevant investigations covering family planning, maternal and child healthcare, and sexual behaviour. The assembled evidence demonstrates that pandemic conditions caused widespread disruptions to essential clinical services, notably limiting access to family planning resources and interrupting routine maternal and child healthcare. In addition, the pandemic influenced personal behaviours, leading to reported decreases in multiple sexual partnerships and reductions in transactional sex. Overall, the findings emphasise that global health emergencies can severely undermine reproductive healthcare systems. Consequently, future health system responses must prioritise interventions that maintain the continuous availability of and access to essential sexual and reproductive health services during widespread crises.
Major infectious disease outbreaks often destabilise routine medical care, creating secondary health crises. By identifying how pandemic restrictions disrupted contraception, maternal care, and sexual behaviour, public health planners can better understand where service delivery is most fragile. These insights assist health authorities in designing resilient health programmes that safeguard essential reproductive care during future global disruptions.
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INTRODUCTION: The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly transformed the pre-existing worldwide sexual and reproductive health environment. The provision and supply of contraceptives, and a wide variety of sexual health, new-born, and maternal health services have been seriously affected. Thus, this scoping review mapped the available evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on sexual and reproductive health. METHODS: Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework guided this scoping review. A search was conducted from the following databases: Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, WOS, and AJOL. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) chart and PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist were used to document the review process. The McMaster critical review checklist was used to determine the quality of the included studies. Thematic analyses were conducted using NVivo version 12. RESULTS: Three studies showed evidence on the impact of COVID-19 and family planning services, six studies reported on maternal and child services and eleven studies reported on sexual health (sexual behavior). Limited access to family planning use, reduction in multiple sexual partnership, decreased transactional sex, and maternal and child services disruption were some impacts reported in the included studies. CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated the impacts of COVID-19 on family planning access, multiple sexual partnership, transactional sex, and disruption of maternal and child health services. Interventions that will consider the immediate availability of and access to all sexual and reproductive health services should be prioritized.
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DOI: 10.3390/healthcare9040436
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