Awareness and knowledge about family planning and reproductive health: A descriptive study among some selected men in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State

Abstract

Demographic studies on fertility and family planning have overwhelmingly focused on women. In practice, the effect that men have on their own and on women’s reproductive lives cannot be undermined, so to exclude men from information, counseling, and services of family planning and reproductive health is to ignore the important part of couples’ reproductive health. This study utilized structured questionnaire administered on 312 randomly selected men. Twenty four in-depth interviews were conducted. Majority (91.0%) heard of family planning but majority (56.5%) of men in the study area have never use any contraceptives before and 74% are currently not using any contraceptives. About 42.1% of the respondents see family planning as a program for women only to control child birth. Condom is the most acceptable contraceptive adopted by few of the participants. Age, education and religion showed a strong relationship to the use of family planning methods among the study participants. The study recommends that family planning education should be introduced at an early age. There is need for reproductive health enlightenment programs in both rural and urban societies that will target men and there should be provision for accessible and affordable different types of men contraceptives rather than only condom.

Keywords: Knowledge, Men, Contraceptives, Family Planning, Reproductive Health