Abstract:

Objective - To determine the attitude and behaviour of married males towards family planning uptake of their spouses in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

Study design -This is a descriptive cross-sectional study design which utilized a semi-structured, self-administered, questionnaire.

Participants -Four hundred and three voluntary participants who were married males, residing within Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti metropolis.

Method - Across-sectional study was employed in this research to enable any desired data to be collected at one point in time using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to participants who also consented to the survey.

Results – There were 403 returned and analyzable questionnaires out of 410 questionnaires administered. The modal age group was 41 -50 years (35.0%). A total number of 23(5.7%) respondents only had primary education, 179(44.5%)secondary education, 161(39.9%)tertiary, while 40(9.9%)had no formal education. The majority of respondents, 202(50.1 %), desired to have 1 -4 children, while 121(30.0%)opted for 5-8 children. Only a smaller fraction, 38(9.4%), depends on God for the size of their family. Although most of the respondents in the study, 265(65.5%), admitted that decisions on family planning practice should be jointly reached by both spouses, 198(49.1 %)reminded their wives to use contraceptives, but only 58(14.4%) attended family planning clinics with their wives.

Conclusions – This study highlighted that a far greater number of respondents desired small sized family and also encouraged their wives to use their chosen contraceptives, but majority were not very willing to attend Family planning clinics with their spouses. Strategies to encourage married males to adequately key into family planning programmes should be devised.

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