Family planning knowledge, attitudes and practices among health centre personnel in Western Province of Kenya.

Abstract

The 1984 Kenya Contraceptive Prevalence Survey revealed that 91% of every married woman 25-34 years old knew of some contraceptive method, yet only 20% had ever used a contraceptive method and a more 2% currently used such a method. Researchers in the Western Province proposed that passive attitudes and low among health center workers reinforced these low acceptance rates. They tested their hypothesis by studying family planning knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health center workers in the 3 districts using focus group discussions. Each type of health worker took part in discussions with their respected colleagues, e.g., community nurses met with community nurses. The results showed that even though the workers looked favorably on the family planning program, they were not well informed about family planning. The study found this to be the overwhelming problem. The majority of the women currently used contraceptives, but not the men. The men did not use them because male contraceptives were limited, ineffective, and/or permanent and irreversible. Moreover both the men and the women believed contraception to the women's responsibility. The findings indicated that the hypothesis was incorrect and that other factors contributed to the poor performance of the family planning programs. For example, regulations dictating that women must be a certain age and at least consult their husbands to use certain contraceptive methods diminish the ability of the programs to be effective. Moreover health centers often had a lack of personnel therefore burdening the existing personnel and ability to provide family planning services. Further curative services ranked 1st at the expense of promotive services. All health center workers should be trained to deliver contraceptive information and some services to clients