The reproductive health in Romania - current status

Abstract

Currently, at national level, two representative actions could provide information for supporting policy making in the field of reproductive health, and these two public health actions need improvements in certain aspects: The Reproductive Health Study in Romania (RHS), and the National Health Programme for Mother and Child Health (NHP-MCH).

After decades of sexual education and family planning interventions, reproductive health in Romania is still a matter of concern. The current image of this field in Romania is difficult to be precisely configured having few elements and data in this sense. Main available indicators highlight a low contraception use, a high rate of abortion and high birth rate among adolescents is mainly the consequence of insufficient information on contraception among all population strata.

Implementation of an action towards the development of a health inequality monitoring system would be of great importance for getting timely information on this subject, and it is favoured by the increased political awareness on the topic after joining EU, the inequalities that should be reduced as mentioned by the National Health Strategy 2014-2020, the existence of structures needed to develop a health inequality monitoring system and the declared political will. Monitoring reproductive health inequalities would provide information on the necessary actions to be implemented towards reaching a better reproductive health, and would also serve as an action implementation evaluation tool.

A special attention should be payed to vulnerable groups: young population in rural communities, low socio-economic and educational status, and persons with mental disabilities.