Predictors of family planning awareness and practice among married men in a semi-urban Nigerian community

Abstract

Background: Men are powerful decision makers especially in developing countries. Their permission and support are required for women to access family planning services. This study was conducted to assess the predictors of family planning awareness and practice among married men in a semi-urban community in Nigeria.
Methods: This study was a community-based cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in September 2013. A total of 275 ever married men were selected by a multistage sampling technique for the study. All the participating men were presented with a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire which was interviewer administered.
Results: Majority of the respondents were in the age group 35-44 years (37.5 %), had at least secondary education, were unskilled workers (38.5 %),were in a monogamous marital union (75.6 %) and knew at least one method of family planning (85.5 %). Less than a third of them (20.0 %) were currently practicing a method of family planning with their wives. The binary logistic regression analysis indicated that age, educational status, socio-economic status and type of marriage of the respondents influenced their knowledge and practice of family planning.
Conclusion: This study further brings to the fore that married men have high level of awareness of methods of family planning but this is not reflected in their approval and practice of family planning. There is need to sensitize and encourage married men to approve and practice family planning in order to reduce the alarming population growth rate in Nigeria.

Keywords: Awareness, practice, family planning, married men