Knowledge, attitudes and practices of Yemeni women attending primary healthcare centers in Sana'a city towards family planning

Abstract EN

Objective : To investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) of Yemeni women attending primary healthcare centers (PHCCs) in Sana’a city towards family planning (FP).

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among women attending three PHCCs in Sana'a city; namely, in Hadah, Al-Soneinah and Madhbah zones, between 21 November and 1 December 2011.

The study included a sample of 281 married women, where data about socio-demographic characteristics and the KAPs towards FP were collected by interviewing women using a pre-designed, structured questionnaire and then analyzed using appropriate statistical tests.

Results : Of the married women attending the PHCCs in Sana'a, the majority of respondents were from urban areas (96.4%; 271/281), aged between 25–29 years old (23.1% 65/281), employed (75.8%; 213/281) and with primary or secondary levels of education (60.9%; 171/281).

In addition, the majority of women had a marriage length of 6–11 years (65.5%; 182/281) and 3–4 children (44.8%; 126/281).

The majority of respondents (89.7%) knew about FP, and 60.2% considered it as birth spacing.

Moreover, most respondents (87.5%) were aware of at least four methods of FP, and 53.6% heard of modern FP contraceptive methods.

Of them, 85.9% and 74.0% heard of contraceptive pills and intrauterine contraceptive devices (ICDU), respectively; however, the least known contraceptive method was the use of male condoms (28.1%).

Healthcare providers were the source of information on FP for the majority of respondents (60.5%).

The majority of respondents believed that the optimum spacing between births should be two or three years, being 31.7% and 38.8%, respectively.

In addition, most respondents (80.8%) believed that both couples must share the decision-making on FP.

Socio-cultural beliefs and values were thought to be the most common (57.3%) barriers to the practice of FP.

Conclusions : Although the majority of Yemeni women seeking healthcare after marriage have a good level of knowledge of several traditional and modern methods of FP and their preference of long birth spacing, the use of such methods is still limited to contraceptive pills and ICDU.

Therefore, attention should be paid to health education of women on the benefits of using other alternative methods of FP for better family lifestyle, health and well-being.