Male knowledge, attitudes, and family planning practices in northern Nigeria

This paper examines the linkages between socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes, and familial contraceptive use. Past family planning programs in Nigeria have been mainly directed toward women. However, because northern Nigeria (and to a slightly lesser extent all of Nigeria) remains a patrilineal society characterised by early age at marriage for women, men at present continue to determine familial fertility and contraceptive decisions. Consequently, at least for the time period relevant for current policy planning purposes, the willingness of husbands to adopt or allow their spouses to use family planning practices will determine the pace of fertility reduction in Nigeria. The results suggest that there is high knowledge of contraceptives, a generally negative attitude towards limiting family size for economic reasons, and consequently low rates of contraceptive use. Respondents who were willing to use contraceptives were more willing to use them for child spacing purposes than explicitly for limiting family size. Path-analytic decompositions of the effects of predictor variables show that education has the largest direct and total effects on contraceptive use while specific knowledge of contraceptives has the smallest direct and total effect (as well as a paradoxical negative direct effect when education is included in the model). Most importantly, attitudes have the largest direct effect on contraceptive use with a standardized coefficient value of 781. Thus, since knowledge of contraceptive is already high among even those respondents who do not use contraceptives, the attitudes of males are especially important for decisions about contraceptive use. As a result, family planning programs that continue to focus solely on women will continue to achieve only limited successes in northern Nigeria (and likely in the many patrilineal societies where similar programs are pursued).     

Knowledge, practices, and attitudes regarding emergency contraception among students at a university in Ghana

Objectives

To investigate the knowledge, practices, and attitudes among students at a university in Ghana regarding emergency contraception (EC).

Methods

An anonymous, self-administered, 39-item questionnaire was sent to 3200 students. The sample size was stratified and 2292 students were randomly selected.

Results

Of the 71.6% of students who responded, 51.4% had heard of EC. Among those, 19.4% thought EC consisted of contraceptive pills, 19.1% of “morning-after pills,” and 12.8% of an intrauterine device. Only 4.2% had ever used EC but 73.9% wished it were provided on campus. Of all the respondents, 90.9% called for the establishment of a reproductive health counseling center on campus.

Conclusion

Student knowledge and use of EC were poor, and there is urgent need for reproductive counseling and EC services on campus.     

Knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of Islamic scholars towards reproductive health programs in Borno State, Nigeria

Some reproductive health policies and activities of international development organizations continued to be criticized by some religious groups. Such criticisms can be serious obstacles in the provision of reproductive health and rights information and services in many communities. This study was conducted to find the knowledge, perception and attitude of Islamic scholars on reproductive health programs and to get some suggestions on the scholars' role in the planning and implementation of reproductive health advocacy and programming. The data were collected by in-depth interview with representative sample of selected Muslim scholars in and around Maiduguri town in Bomo State, Nigeria. All the scholars had vague or no idea of what reproductive health is all about. When they were explaining reproductive health, most of the scholars mentioned some of the rights of women especially the need for maintaining the good health of women and their children as reproductive health. Even though they have poor knowledge, all the Muslim scholars interviewed believed that reproductive health is an essential component of healthy living and the programs of the international development organizations are mostly good, but they have reservations and concern to certain campaigns and programs. Scholars that promised their contributions in enhancing reproductive health have a common condition for their continuous support to any international development organization or reproductive health program. Conformity to Islamic norms and principles are prerequisites to their loyalties. The scholars also advised the international development organizations on the need to identify themselves clearly, so that people know from where they are coming, what are their background, and the program that they want to do and the reasons for doing the program in the community.     

Knowledge, attitudes, and reported practices among obstetrician-gynecologists in the USA regarding antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections

BACKGROUND: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) have not been well described among obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYNs). This information is useful for determining whether an OB/GYN-specific program promoting appropriate antibiotic use would significantly contribute to the efforts to decrease inappropriate antibiotic use among primary care providers. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire asking about the treatment of URIs was sent to 1031 obstetrician-gynecologists. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 46%. The majority of respondents (92%) were aware of the relationship between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, and respondents estimated that 5% of their patients had URI symptoms at their office visits. Overall, 56% of respondents reported that they would prescribe an antibiotic for uncomplicated bronchitis and 43% for the common cold. OB/GYNs with the fewest years of experience were less likely than those with the most years of experience to report prescribing for uncomplicated bronchitis (Odds ratio (OR) 0.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23 to 0.91) or the common cold (OR 0.44, CI 0.22 to 0.89). The majority of respondents (60%) believed that most patients wanted an antibiotic for URI symptoms, with male OB/GYNs being more likely than female OB/GYNs (OR 2.1, CI 1.2 to 3.8) to hold this belief. Both male OB/GYNs (OR 1.9, CI 1.1 to 3.4) and rural practitioners (OR 2.1, CI 1.1 to 4.0) were more likely to believe that it was hard to withhold antibiotics for URI symptoms because other physicians prescribe antibiotics for these symptoms. OB/GYNs who believed that postgraduate training prepared them well for primary care management were more likely than those who did not (OR 2.1, CI 1.1 to 4.2) to believe that they could reduce antibiotic prescribing without reducing patient satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Multiple demographic factors affect attitudes and reported practices regarding antibiotic prescribing. However, in view of the low proportion of office visits for URIs, an OB/GYN-specific program is not warranted.