Community based study on married couples' family planning knowledge, attitude and practice in rural and urban Gambia.

BACKGROUND

Family planning services have been free of charge and available in all the health facilities in the Gambia since 1975 yet contraceptive prevalence is only 17.5% and even 6% in some areas. Since the last census in 2003, there existed no available data on married couples' contraception status.

OBJECTIVES

To explore married couples' family planning knowledge, attitudes, and practices in rural and urban Gambia and to analyze what factors may affect such knowledge, attitudes and practices.

METHODS

Quantitative cross-sectional study design was used. Through convenience sampling, 176 men and 235 women representing a total of 176 couples participated. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection.

RESULTS

The mean scores of the married couples family planning knowledge, attitudes, and practices were 19.00 ± 6.11(ranging from 0 to 64), 6.90 ± 3.08 (0 to 14) and 4.69 ± 3.3 (0 to 19) respectively. Urban residents had higher scores on family planning practice than rural residents (p<.05). Attitude is the strongest predictor of practice (accounted for 34.6% of variance).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings offer a descriptive answer to "what are married couples' family planning knowledge, attitude and practice in Gambia", as well as suggesting broader health intervention programs in health education and promotion.