Agbeno Evans Kofi, Osarfo Joseph, Anane-Fenin Betty, Achampong Emmanuel Kusi, Neequaye Naa Adei, Opoku Douglas Aninng, Aliyu Mohammed, Ken-Amoah Sebastian, Ofori Anthony Amanfo, Ashong Joycelyn A
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Ghana Health Service, Asante Mampong Municipal Hospital, Asante Mampong, Ashanti Region, Ghana.
Int J Reprod Med. 2021 Mar 22;2021:6631790. doi: 10.1155/2021/6631790. eCollection 2021.
Healthcare providers play a major role in the implementation of family planning policies. In Ghana, there has been a conscious effort to improve the knowledge of preservice and practicing health professionals on family planning. However, there have been concerns about the appropriateness of the attitudes and practices of these health cadres and, hence, their propensity to become barriers to the uptake of contraception in the general population. This study is aimed at assessing the attitudes and practices of healthcare workers and clinical-year medical students in contraceptives use, advocacy, and service provision.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among health workers and clinical-year medical students from January 1 to June 30, 2018. Variables assessed included sexual activity status, previous and current contraceptive use, and satisfaction with contraceptive use among others. Data from 400 self-administered, structured questionnaires comprising close- and open-ended questions was entered in SPSS version 22 and analysed using same. The variables assessed were presented as means, frequencies, and percentages.
About 58% of the respondents were sexually active. Half of the participants (50.2%) had used a form of contraception before, with condoms and other barrier methods being the most preferred (67.7%). However, only 18% of respondents were on a form of contraceptive at the time of the survey. Four out of five (82.6%) of the users of these contraceptives were satisfied with their past use. A little over half of the participants had discussed contraception with their partners. Over four-fifths of participants thought family planning was beneficial and were willing to encourage others to use a method of family planning. Majority (63.7%) of the participants had had formal training in family planning, but only 72 (18%) were actively involved in the provision of family planning services.
Although the attitudes of the health workers and trainees toward family planning were excellent generally, only a few were using a method of contraception at the time of the survey despite the fact that most of them were sexually active. There is a need to intensify communication on behaviour change towards contraception among health professionals and clinical-year medical students in order to strengthen their role as change agents in an effort to improve community uptake.
医疗服务提供者在计划生育政策的实施中发挥着重要作用。在加纳，人们有意识地努力提高岗前和在职卫生专业人员对计划生育的认识。然而，人们对这些卫生干部的态度和做法是否恰当存在担忧，因此担心他们可能会成为普通人群采用避孕措施的障碍。本研究旨在评估医护人员和临床医学生在避孕措施使用、宣传及服务提供方面的态度和做法。
于2018年1月1日至6月30日对卫生工作者和临床医学生进行了一项横断面调查。评估的变量包括性活动状况、既往和当前的避孕措施使用情况以及对避孕措施使用的满意度等。来自400份自我填写的结构化问卷（包括封闭式和开放式问题）的数据录入SPSS 22版本并进行分析。所评估的变量以均值、频率和百分比的形式呈现。
约58%的受访者有性活动。一半的参与者（50.2%）以前使用过某种避孕措施，其中避孕套和其他屏障方法是最常用的（67.7%）。然而，在调查时只有18%的受访者正在使用某种避孕措施。这些避孕措施使用者中有五分之四（82.6%）对他们过去的使用情况感到满意。略多于一半的参与者与他们的伴侣讨论过避孕问题。超过五分之四的参与者认为计划生育有益，并愿意鼓励其他人采用计划生育方法。大多数参与者（63.7%）接受过计划生育方面的正规培训，但只有72人（18%）积极参与计划生育服务的提供。
尽管卫生工作者和实习生对计划生育的态度总体上很好，但在调查时只有少数人正在使用避孕措施，尽管他们大多数人都有性活动。有必要加强对卫生专业人员和临床医学生在避孕行为改变方面的沟通，以强化他们作为变革推动者的作用，从而提高社区对避孕措施的采用率。
