Characteristics of family planning acceptors at aprimary health care project in Lagos, Nigeria

Analysis of data collected from the family planning section of a Primary Health Care Project in Lagos, shows that the majority of the 275 acceptors in 1979 were aged 25-39 years. 96% of the clients were married. 1 explanation is that unmarried women may be wary of coming forth for family planning, as this might indicate that they have an active sexual life in a culture which is probably still conservative. Clients with 2ndary and post 2ndary education are over represented. This underscores the importance of education in stimulating demand for family planning in the population. A comparison of the data with those from the Lagos University Hospital in 1972 shows that women with 2 or fewer children continue to be under presented in relation to their proportion in the population. The number of children and the age of the acceptors suggests that people in this environment tend to adopt modern family planning after completion of their family, rather than to space children. Catholics seem to be over represented in the data. Lower socioeconomic groups patronize the clinic more than the higher socioeconomic groups or professionals. The majority of the clients were referred by nurse-midwives and friends. The most common method of family planning was the IUD, followed by the pill. It was felt that part of the reason for the much lower clinic continuation rate for the pill was due to the fact that patients may continue on the pill without the knowledge of the clinic. It was also found that even though the project was catering to a geographically demarcated target population, most clients came from outside of the area, and some from very far away. This suggests that other strategies for delivery of family planning services may be called for.