Men's knowledge of and attitude with respect to family planning in a suburban Nigerian community.
BACKGROUND
Men's Knowledge of and attitudes to family planning (FP) in suburban and rural Nigeria is still poor despite a global move to increase the involvement of men in reproductive health matters. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine men's knowledge of and attitude to family planning at Ganmo, a sub-urban community on the outskirts of Ilorin, Nigeria.


METHODS
The study employed an interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire to elicit information from 360 men in the households. Only males above the age of 15 years resident in the community were selected for interview A proportionate sampling procedure was employed in selecting the required numberof men from each of the 32 compounds that make up the community.


RESULTS
Nearly all men (96.5%) were aware of family planning and a majority of them were aware of some common methods of family planning e.g. Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs) (72.5%), Injectables (69.2%), Condoms (86.6%) and Traditional methods (70.6%). Knowledge of other alternative female methods was low e.g. Norplant (17.5%), IUCD (26.3%), Diaphragm (39.8%), Vaginal cream (30.2%), Vaginal tablet (37.8%) and Vaginal sponge (16.8%), and Tubal Ligation (51.3%). Knowledge of male controlled FP methods like Withdrawal (49.6%), Rhythm or periodic abstinence (54.6%) and Vasectomy (28.6%) was also poor. The Respondents had low knowledge of common side effects of FP methods e.g. nausea (9.8%), vomiting (13.1%), abnormal menstruation (34.4%), pain (23.2%) and unwanted weight gain (17.0%); some 25.3%% of respondents had no knowledge of any side effects. The attitude of respondents to family planning was also relatively poor as only a moderate proportion of men supported the FP concept (52.7%) and the Nigerian Population Policy (54.8%) of "four children to a woman". Some 54.8% of respondents were in support of men discussing about FP with their spouses. The major reasons for non-approval of FP by men were the fear of side-effects (70.4%) and perception of FP as being against religion (52.1%). The predictors of poor FP attitude were not having formal education, practice of polygyny and to a lesser extent being a Muslim.


CONCLUSIONS
The study concluded that, men at Ganmo have limited knowledge of, and poor attitude to FP An intensive drive at a community based adult reproductive health education was advocated among other recommendations.
Odu
O O
OO
Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. borbordoc2@yahoo.com
Ijadunola
K T
KT
Komolafe
J O
JO
Adebimpe
W T
WT
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003270:Contraceptive Agents; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005193:Family Planning Services; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008571:Men / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D013383:Suburban Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
D003270:Contraceptive Agents