Knowledge and attitude of university students towards family planning and family formation

Other Title(s)

دراسة حول معرفة و موقف طلبة جامعة البصرة من برنامج تنظيم الأسرة و تكوين الأسرة

Dissertant

Abd al-Zahrah, Nailah Hashim

Thesis advisor

Habib, Umran Sukkar
al-Mulla, Amal Yasin Y.

Comitee Members

al-Asadi, Jasim Naim
Laftah, Riyad K.
al-Dahhan, Fuad Hamad

University

University of Basrah

Faculty

Medicine College

Department

Department of Community Medicine

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2011

English Abstract

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was carried out on university students in Basrah to assess their knowledge and attitude towards family planning programme and family formation.

The study involved 1900 students from five colleges who were selected by multistage sampling procedure.

Data were collected using a special questionnaire form prepared for the purpose of the study.

The questionnaire form included information on the socio-demographic and family characteristics of the students, their knowledge about family planning, their attitude towards family planning and their attitude towards family formation in future.

Data collection extended from the 25th of February 2011 to 10th of May 2011.

These data were collected through a direct interview of the students by the investigator. The results of the study showed that the age of the respondents ranged between 18 and 32 years with a mean of 21.1 ± 2.0 years, females represent 62.5 %, and 92.8% of the sample were unmarried at the time of study.

Only one quarter (25.3 %) of the university students were familiar with the term "family planning" and only 1.9 % had a good knowledge regarding the issue of family planning.

Sex, student's age, marital status and place of residence had a significant independent association with the knowledge. About (41.0 %) knew two methods and only (6.1 %) knew five methods or more of family planning.

Oral contraceptive pills were the most known method among students (92.7%).

49.4 % of students mentioned two benefits for family planning methods and 31.0 % mentioned at least one. Economic benefit and mother health were the leading perceived benefits from using these methods.

40.3 % of students recognized three side effects from using family planning methods and 36.3 % recognized two sides Effects.

Vaginal bleeding was the most recognized side effect (66.7 %) The family was the major source of the students' knowledge about family planning (58.5 %) Majority of students had favorable attitude towards family planning (17.7 %).

Sex, student's age, college, marital status, place of residence, economic level of the family and mother's academic attainment were significantly and independently associated with the students' attitude. Nearly one quarter of students approved future use of family planning methods.

The leading method to be used in future was oral contraceptive pills (15.6 %).

About 84.0% of students believed that decision-making regarding the use of family planning methods was a joint process and 61.7 % of students believed that religion is not against family planning programme. The majority of students stated that the suitable age for marriage was between 20-24 years for man and woman.

The mean ideal age at marriage was 25.7 ± 2.9 years for man and 21.8 ± 2.7 years for woman.

The mean ideal number of children preferred by the students in future was 3.3 ± 1.1 children and the mean ideal spacing between pregnancies that preferred by students was 2.8 ± 1.1 years.

Number of siblings and family members of student were significantly related to the preferred number of children in the future. It is recommended to provide the university students with adequate health education regarding reproductive health especially about family planning programme in order to promote better knowledge and to enable them to make a responsible decision.

Main Subjects

Medicine

Topics

• Universities
• Students
• Birth control
• Attitudes
• Iraq

No. of Pages

96

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-317399