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EFFECT OF A FAMILY PLANNING EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF, ATTITUDE TO AND PRACTICE OF FAMILY PLANNING AMONG NIGERIAN AIR FORCE SERVICEMEN, IKEJA LAGOS
Abstract
This study was undertaken to determine the effect of a health education intervention on the knowledge of, attitude to and practice of family planning to ascertain the level of involvement in family planning among the service men of the Nigerian Airforce Base Ikeja Lagos.
The two hundred and fifty respondents in the intervention and control groups of this three-phased quasi-experimental study were selected using the multi stage sampling technique. The respondents in the two groups were first stratified into ranks, and then the selection from each rank was done systematically, with the first respondent from each rank selected by balloting. The three phases were the pre intervention where baseline information was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The second phase was the intervention, which consisted of four sessions of a one-month health education campaign on all aspects of male involvement in family planning. Third phase was the post intervention where post intervention data on their knowledge of, attitude to and practice of family planning was collected three months after intervention.
Majority of the respondents in the experimental (92.8%) and control groups (92%) were airmen with only 3.2 and 3.6% senior officers in the experimental and control groups respectively.
The age distribution among the respondents in the experimental and control group was similar with a mean age of 33.5 ± 8.56 and 33.9 ± 8.61 respectively. The majority of the respondents (56.4% and 57.6%) in the experimental and control groups were Christians of Yoruba origin (38.8% and
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39.6%) with most of them having more than primary education in the two groups. The majority of the respondents in the two groups (61.2% and 58.1%) in the experimental and control group were married with two- third of this married respondents into monogamous unions while one-third into polygamous union. The mean age at marriage of the respondents was similar in the two groups (29 ± 3.81 and 28.6 ± 3.41) as there was no statistically significant difference observed. The current mean number of children among the respondents in the experimental and control group was also similar at 4.17 ± 2.12 and 4.16 ± 2.17 respectively. The idea of a two-child family practiced in India is yet to be embraced.38. Forty-eight point eight percent had more than one sexual partner in the last six month. There was no statistically significant difference observed in the Socio Demographic data of the experimental and control groups. P value >0.05.
On the knowledge of family planning there was statistically significant increase in the proportion of those who had heard of family planning in the post intervention group. (P value = 0.000). This difference was not observed in the control. Knowledge of individual methods also increased especially vasectomy knowledge which increased significantly in the experimental group (p value = 0.009) as against the control (p value >0.05). Knowledge of periodic sexual abstinence (p value = 0.034) and emergency contraceptives pills (p value = 0.033) also increased significantly over the control group with (p value = 0>05) in each case. A statistically significant level of approval was observed in the experimental group during the post intervention phase (81.2%, p value < 0.05)
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as against the control (p value > 0.05). A high proportion of the respondents 72% said that they use family planning to limit number of children as against 44.4% who said they use it for birth spacing. Condom knowledge was high 100% in the pre and post intervention phase of the two groups. A Statistical significant increase (p value = 0.000) was observed in the number of respondents who had ever used family planning method in the experimental group as against control. Eighty percent of respondents and 45.2% are currently using condom post intervention in the experimental and control groups. This was found to be statistically significant (p value = 0.000).
The respondents agreed that women who use family planning methods were responsible, faithful and trustworthy but however threatened male authority and were undecided as to whether these women were independent of their husbands.
This study succeeded in further increasing the knowledge of family planning amongst the respondents from 70% to 100%. It also increased the level of knowledge of vasectomy, periodic sexual abstinence and emergency control pills significantly (p value < 0.05) in each case. The attitude of the service men to family planning changed from fair to good and they were now more favourably disposed to women who use family planning methods. There was also a statistically significant increase in the level of current condom users in the experimental group compared to the control.
