Counseling improves the use of contraceptive methods in male
academics
O. Cigerli, P. Topsever, S. Gorpelioglu, N. Aladag, T. Muge Filiz
Kocaeli
University School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey
Objective(s) Men are equally responsible for making the decisions on family
planning. Determining contraceptive use of the male population is necessary for
the planning of appropriate medical and public health education, services and
information targeting the whole population. The aim of this study was to
evaluate male academic staff at a university with respect to their approach to
family planning methods and the association of use of modern contraceptive
methods and counseling.
Design and methods The male academic and office
personnel of the various faculties and colleges of a university (except for the
medical school employees) who had at least a high-school education were included
in this cross-sectional study. After an informed consent was obtained all
subjects were asked to fill out the questionnaire including questions about
socio-demographics and contraceptive methods. Nonparametric variables were
compared with chi-square test.
Results A total of 155 subjects accepted to
participate in this study. Due to incomplete answers, data of 121 questionnaires
were included (response rate 78.1%). Ninety five (78.5%) questionnaire forms
were answered by the academic personnel and 26 (21.5%) forms by the office
personnel. 77.7% of the participants were married. The mean age of the
participants was 38±10 years. While 80 subjects (66.1%) used modern family
planning methods, 41 subjects (33.9%) used ineffective prevention methods or
none at all. Most often used contraceptive method was the condom. Seventy
percent of those who used modern methods declared that they had obtained
information and counseling on family planning. Sources of information were
health care professionals followed by publications on family planning in both
groups. Counseled academics were significantly more often using modern methods
(p=0.013).
Conclusions The results of the present study suggest that counseling
on family planning may have a positive effect on the use of modern contraceptive
methods by the male population with a high educational background. Irrespective
of gender and education, the whole population should be provided with continuous
education and counselling on family planning in order to improve reproductive
healthcare.