Assessment of the contraception knowledge, attitude and
practices in a suburban neighbourhood of Istanbul
A. Topuzoglu, S. Hidiroglu, P.
Ay, S. Sulun, F. Onsuz, D. Save
Marmara University Department of Public Health,
Istanbul, Turkey
Introduction This study reports the findings of the baseline
survey of a community based intervention. The objective was to provide data on
ever married women living in a suburban neighbourhood in Istanbul concerning
their fertility, family planning, and reproductive health characteristics in
order to plan a community based intervention.
Method The data was collected
through a questionnaire form that was applied face to face by trained
interviewers. The sample size was calculated as 900 women in order to raise the
modern method use from 39% to 46% for a level of 90% power and 0.05 type I error.
The study neighbourhood, Kazim Karabekir, was stratified to six clusters and the
streets were selected randomly from each cluster. The data of 878 (out of 900)
women were collected between June-August 2005.
Findings A total of 66.9% of the women were
getting contraception information from the primary health care centers. 47.3% of
the participants had access to the information through their friends. 64.0% of
the participants did not want to have anymore children. IUD (88.3%), pills
(76.9%), female sterilization (70.9%), were the mostly known methods. Pills, IUD,
condom, withdrawal and female sterilization were also the mostly recalled
methods when mentioned by the interviewer. Withdrawal (53.5%), IUD (51.4%),
pills (26.0%) and condom (23.7%) was the mostly used methods. 9.6% of the
participant had heard emergency contraception while 0.1% had used. The knowledge
concerning the effectiveness of the contraceptive methods was inadequate.
Conclusion The bulk of the knowledge concerning family planning was obtained
from the primary care health centers and the social environment. The mostly
remembered methods were IUD, pills and female sterilization. The modern methods
were recalled at a higher level when their names were mentioned. The mostly used
contraceptive methods were withdrawal and IUD. The peer education method can
improve the level and quality of family planning knowledge since social
environment is an important information source among this population.