SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION ON CONTRACEPTIVE USE AMONG MARRIED FEMALE ADOLESCENTS IN IBADAN NORTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study focuses on spousal communication on contraceptive use among married female adolescents in Ibadan North East Local Government Area. It assessed how communication between married female adolescents and their spouses influenced their use of contraceptives in Ibadan North Local Government Area (LGA), Nigeria. A three-stage sampling technique was used to purposively select 400 married female adolescents among the women attending maternal and child health clinics in the 12 political wards in the L.G.A. Data were collected using two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and structured questionnaire that elicited socio-demographical information, knowledge, attitude, practices, in relation to reproductive and family health, communication pattern among married female adolescents and use of contraceptives. A pilot study was conducted to test the reliability of sections B, C and D of the questionnaire and the Cronbach alpha coefficient yielded 0.99, 0.60 and 0.77 for the sections respectively. The FGD data were analyzed using the thematic approach while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and Chi-square statistics aided with the use of SPSS 17. The results show that the men age of the respondents was 17.4±1.7 years and most were Yoruba (90.8%). Forty-four percent were traders, 13.8% were apprentices, 12.8% were full-time housewives and the others were involved in petty trading and jobs which do not require special skills. Many (61.0%) were aware of at least one form of contraceptive method. Few (22.3%) had ever used a method of contraception. Of those that ever used contraceptives, only 33.5% were current users. Over half (54.0%) of the total respondents had ever discussed contraceptives with their spouses, of which 31.5% did so in the month preceding the survey; 66.2% and 28.0% claimed that the discussions were initiated by self and spouses respectively. Among the respondents that discussed in the month preceding the survey, 67.6% talked about importance of contraceptives, while 19.1% expressed the need for birth control post delivery and 7.4% emphasized the need to switch to another method/side effect. Much of the discussions (76.5%) occurred at bed time. Of the total respondents, 17.0% recently discussed contraceptive use with their spouses and 7.5% currently use a form of contraceptive at the end time of this survey. Of the current users; 73.3% did not discuss and just 26.7% discussed recently with their spouses. There was no significant relationship between spousal communication and contraceptive use (P>0.05). The factors that hindered spousal communication on contraceptive use were wives' disrespecting their spouses (35.0%), disharmony between couple (19.7%), and spouse's unhappy mood (11.2%). The factors that facilitated spousal communication and promoted contraceptive use were sexual satisfaction (37.8%), trust between couple (25.5%), spouse's good mood (20.5%) and spouses' interest (10.3%). The FGDs participants stated that spousal communication would not promote contraceptive use if couples have not had desired number of children. The use of contraceptives and spousal communication on it were poor among the married female adolescents. It is therefore important to empower women with negotiation skills needed for contraceptive use.