Contraceptive knowledge, attitude and practice among married women of reproductive age group in a rural area of Karnataka: a cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION

According to Census 2011, India’s population stood at 1,21,01,93,422, and the last decade has seen India’s population growth by 17.64%.¹ By 2045 or earlier, India would overtake China as the World’s most populous nation.²

India was the first country in the world to implement family planning programme in the year 1952. A lot of efforts and resources have gone into the national family welfare programmes but the results are not satisfactory.³

The extent of acceptance of contraceptive methods still varies within societies and also among different religious groups. The factors responsible are present at the individual, family and community level with their roots embedded in socio economic and cultural practices of Indian society.⁴

Further unintended pregnancy poses a major threat to the reproductive health of young adults in developing countries like India. With the decreasing age of menarche, early marriage and onset of sexual activity, youths are exposed to early unplanned and unprotected sexual intercourse leading to unwanted pregnancies.

Unsafe abortion outside the medical setting is one of the most dangerous consequences of unwanted pregnancy.⁵

With this background, a study was planned with an objective to determine the knowledge, attitude, practices regarding the contraceptive use among married women of reproductive age group in a rural area of Karnataka.

METHODS

Study area

One of the rural field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, AIMS, B.G. Nagara, Karnataka.

Study design

Community based, Cross-sectional study

Study period

August 2016 to January 2017.

Study subjects

Married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) residing in the study area. The list of all married women in reproductive age group was obtained from the family folder maintained at PHC.

They were initially contacted during one of the Village Health and Nutrition day conducted in the local anganwadi centre and were explained about the study.

Inclusion criteria

Women of reproductive age group, married and living with their husband in the study area and who gave informed consent for the study participation.

Exclusion criteria

Women who have undergone hysterectomy, widowed, divorced and those who did not gave informed consent for the study participation.

Out of 215 married women of reproductive age group in the study area, 3 had underwent hysterectomy, 2 widowed, 1 divorced and 9 refused to give informed consent for the study participation.

So, the study subjects constituted all 200 married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) residing in the study area, who gave informed consent.

Method of data collection

Data was collected using predesigned, pretested, structured questionnaire prepared in local language. The current use of different contraceptive methods among subjects was defined as use of any contraceptive method in the past one year proceeding the study period. If more than one method was used, then the latest contraceptive method used was taken into account. Reasons for using contraceptives were assessed by open ended questions.

Institutional ethical committee approval, informed consent from the study participants was taken and anonymity, confidentiality was ensured.

Statistical analysis

Data were entered in MS Excel spread sheet and descriptive analysis was conducted to describe results in percentages.

RESULTS

In the present study, data was collected from 200 married women in the reproductive age group. The demographic characteristics of the study participants are shown in Table 1.

Out of 200 study participants, 162 (81%) had knowledge and awareness of family planning methods.

Table 2 shows the spectrum of knowledge in the 162 study participants who had heard about family planning methods.

Out of 162 study participants, who had knowledge and awareness of family planning methods, about 104 (64.1%) of women got information from mass media, 34 (20.9%) from health personnel, 24 (14.8%) from social circle (Figure 1).

Out of 200 study participants, 106 (53%) were practicing different contraceptive methods as shown in Table 3.

Positive attitude for contraception was shown by 152 (76%) study participants (Table 4).

DISCUSSION

In the present study, a majority of 162 (81%) had knowledge and awareness of family planning methods.

This finding was supported by a study conducted in 2009 on Knowledge and use of contraception among Racha Koyas of Andhra Pradesh, which showed that 81% had a high level of knowledge on different contraceptive methods.⁶

The findings are contradicting with the study conducted in 2011 at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh by Mahawar on contraceptive knowledge, attitude and practice, where results showed poor contraceptive knowledge among females.⁷

In the present study major source of knowledge regarding contraceptives were from mass media (64.1%), health worker (20.9%), and social circle (14.8%). Similar findings were seen in a study conducted in Peshawar district.⁸ A study conducted in Ethiopia, showed that 80.3% of health workers contributed in disseminating information regarding contraceptives.⁹ Other studies conducted in Nigeria in 2009, in India in 2005 by Srivastava et al showed social circle was found to be the main source of Knowledge and followed by health workers.^10,11

In the present study, 53% of study participants were practicing different contraceptive methods, while 47% were not practicing contraceptive methods. Similar findings were seen in a study conducted by Prachi et al, where 44.6% were not using any method of contraception.¹²

In the present study, 152 (76%) study participants showed positive attitude. Similar findings was shown by a study conducted on Knowledge, attitude and practice of family planning in Tezu village, Manipur India in 2007 where majority had favorable attitude on family planning.

CONCLUSION

The study reveals good knowledge and favourable attitude of rural women towards contraception. Women education and counseling of couples can play an important role to adopt family planning methods. Electronic media, health workers, government organizations can play a positive role to provide knowledge and overcome the Knowledge/practice gap.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee

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