The Contraceptive Knowledge and Use among Women Attending Primary Health Care Centers of Al Dawahe District in Port Said Governorate, BADR M. EL SHAMY, HEBATALLAH N. ABDELSATAR and MOHAMED M. AWAD
Abstract
Background: Family planning allows individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births, it is achieved through use of contraceptive methods. Despite the high prev-alence of medical contraceptive use, unplanned pregnancies remain frequent. Knowledge and use of contraceptives are the indicators most frequently used by the national and inter-national organization to assess family planning.
Aim of the Study: To assess knowledge and use of contra-ception among women attending Al Dwahe health care centers in Port Said Governorate.
Subjects and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in all (three) primary health care centers of Al Dawahe district in Port Said Governorate. The study included 117 women according to sample size calculation and the inclusion criteria. A structured interview questionnaire was used to collect data. This questionnaire was constructed by Egyptian Demography and health survey (EDHS) 2008. EPI information program was used for data entry and management.
Results: The mean age of the studied women was 31.41±16.97, all the studied women knew about pills and IUCD. The majority of sample knew about injections (93.2%), slightly more than three quarter of them knew about condom (75.2%) followed by (70.1%) least known method was male sterilization (19.7%). Lactational amenorrhea was the most recognized traditional method representing (47%). Regarding the ever use of contraceptive methods, the most common methods used by the studied women were the IUCD repre-senting (64.1%) followed by pills representing (58.1%) then injection (34.2%). The least used method was emergency contraception (2.6%). No one used male sterilization as a contraceptive method.
Conclusion: Despite the women's knowledge about many modern and traditional methods of contraception, the use was limited to certain methods: Pills, IUCD and injectables. Attention should be given to other methods to provide multiple choices for the women who found that pills, IUCD or inject-ables are unsuitable for her instead of not using any method.