Men’s Perception and Practice of Family Planning in Ede South Local Government Area Osun State, Nigeria

Background: Majority of men in Sub-Saharan Africa have been observed to have poor family planning (FP) behaviour. The study was carried out to determine the awareness, perception and practice of family planning among men in Ede South Local Government Area (LGA), Osun State, Nigeria.

Methods: The study, carried out between October and December 2010 among men in Ede South LGA, employed a cross-sectional descriptive design. A pre-tested, self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 340 men who were recruited by multi-stage sampling method. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 35.3 ± 11.7 years; 60% were married and 99% were aware of family planning. Male condom was the most commonly known while vasectomy was the least known; 89.5% had good perception of FP while 66.1% had good practice. The most commonly used methods were condom (49.5%), withdrawal (22.5%) and oral contraceptives (19.8%). There was a statistically significant association between religion, educational and occupational status and FP practice and a statistically significant association between religion, educational status and FP practice (P<.05).

Conclusion: Men in Ede-South LGA were largely aware of and majority had good perception of FP. However a fewer proportion had good practice of family planning. There is a need to bridge the gap between awareness, perception and practice of family planning.