INTENTION TO USE CONTRACEPTIVES AMONG FEMALE POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

The world population growth rate is increasing and Nigeria being the most populous African country also ranked eight most populous countries in the world. Even though, knowledge of contraception should influence the practice of contraceptive use, but in Nigeria the case is different as we battle between high knowledge of contraceptive use and low practice. This implies that 44% of maternal death can be averted through contraceptive use. Also,80% of female students in higher educational institutions are sexually active which leads to an increased rate of unplanned pregnancies. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate intention to use contraceptives among female postgraduate students of public health university of Ibadan, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional design. The total sample of consenting respondents consists of 187 female MPH students from all departments using a multistage sampling technique, involving three stages. A pre-tested semi-structured interviewer questionnaire was used. A 20 point knowledge scale was used to assess knowledge of contraceptive use; knowledge score of > 12 was rated good, > 8 < 12 was rated fair and < 8 was rated poor knowledge. A 18 point attitude scale was used to examine the attitudinal disposition of respondents towards contraceptive use; attitude score of > 13 was rated good attitude while < 13 was rated bad attitude. Also, a 12 point intention scale was used to assess intention to use contraceptive; intention score of > 9 was rated good intention while < 9 was rated bad intention. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as chi square test at p < 0.05 level of significance. Age of the respondents was 26.9 + 4.4 years. Majority were Christian (89.3%) and Yoruba (79.7%) while 19.3% were married. Modern contraceptive use prevalence was 48.7% with 60.4% sexually active respondents. Majority (71.7%) of the respondent had good knowledge of contraceptive, 20.9% had fair knowledge and 6.4% had poor knowledge of contraceptive use. Some (58.8%) of the respondents had poor attitude and few (41.2%) had good attitude towards use of contraceptives. Also, majority (71.7%) had bad intention while 28.3% had good intention towards contraceptive use. There was a significant difference between attitude of respondents and their intention to use contraceptives {X2 = 11.258, p=0.001, df=1}. The findings suggested behavioural intervention programs towards female university students so as to bring about a positive behavior change on their attitude and intention to use contraceptives because intention predicts if an actual behavior will be enacted