Awareness and Practice of Family Planning Methods among Women in Jumla - A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: The family planning method is used to help individuals and couples to avoid unwanted pregnancies, regulate intervals between pregnancies, and determine the number of children to be given birth. Family planning is an effective intervention for promoting maternal health, but its acceptability and utilization are affected by many factors. High level of maternal and infant mortality is related to unintended pregnancy. The main causes of unintended pregnancy were no use of family planning methods. One of the perceived barriers to family planning was a lack of knowledge about family planning use. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the awareness and practice of family planning methods among women in Chandannath Municipality Jumla. Methodology: A community-baseddescriptive cross-sectional study was conducted through face-to-face interviewsusing a semi-structuredinterview questionnaire among 64 women. The Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. The Chandannath municipality of Jumla districtwas chosen purposively at first then the study site was selected by simple random sampling (lottery) and the sample was selected by systematic random sampling technique. This study was conducted after getting ethical approval from the Institutional ReviewCommittee of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 16. Descriptive analysis (Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (chi-square) was used.

Results: Out of 64 respondents,nearlyone-third (31.30%) of the respondents were 40 and above years. 96.90% of the respondents and 98.40% of their husbands were literate. The majority 60.90% had a family size below five and 89.10% had less than three children. 59.37% of the respondents know the meaning of family planning as a measure of birth control and 62.50% were aware that FP improves maternal and child health.79.6percentagehad information from health workers. 90.60%) of respondents were aware thatfamily planning methods are available from health posts. 51.60% of respondents had adequate awareness; 46.90% were current family planning users. Among them 36.65% used Depo-Provera. The level of awareness was not significantly associated with their practice of family planning methods (p=0.216).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that more than half of the respondents had adequate awareness and nearly half of the respondents were current family planning users. There is no association between the level of awareness and practice of family planning. It provides baseline data of the respective area. Health personnel and responsible authorities will be sensitive to increase awareness and optimize the utilization of family planning. Further large-scale studies are needed to identify barriers to usingfamily planning methods.