Knowledge and Practices Towards Family Planning Among Women Attending Tikrit Teaching Hospital, Iraq

Abstract

Background: Family planning is the key to reduce maternal mortality and upturning  population  health  and  managing  fertility  rate.  Despite  its significance, there exists a disparity between use and knowledge of family planning methods, especially in developing countries. Given the fact that determinants  of  family  planning  utilization  serve  as  stake  holders  in maternal and child health area it has become very important to develop some most effective interventions for reproductive health.
Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitude and practice towards family planning methods among women in Tikrit city\ Iraq as well as to identify some of barriers deterring their use.
Methods: A cross sectional study conducted on 200 reproductive age women  who  presented  to  Tikrit  Teaching  Hospital.  A  pretested  and structured  questionnaire  was  used to  collect  data  on  demographic variables, awareness, attitude and practice of family planning methods. Statistical  analysis  was  carried  out  using  SPSS  version  25.0, which consisted of descriptive statistics and chi-square tests.
Results:  The  majority  of  participants were  25-49  years  old  (84%), completed  primary  school  education  (41%)  and  housewives  mostly (84.5%).  They  had  awareness  about  family planning  (96%)  but  the utilization of FP was less (66%). The predominant form of contraception was  oral  contraceptives (45%).  Age,  parity  and  occupation  were significantly  associated  with  family  planning  utilization,  there  was  no significant association between socioeconomic status, educational level and place of residence.
Conclusion: The study indicates a discrepancy between the use of and knowledge about contraceptive methods in Tikrit city. Factors that were significantly  associated with  utilization  of  family  planning  were  age, occupation and number of children. These results further emphasize the need for selection interventions that promote linkage through improving the awareness-service utilization gap, particularly among hard-to-reach groups.