FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH CONTRACEPTIVE USE AMONG FEMALE NURSES IN UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR TEACHING HOSPITAL (UCTH), CALABAR, CROSS-RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Background: Contraceptives are beneficial in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, among others hence having a great effect on the health of women, their entire families and the population as a whole. Healthcare providers such as nurses play a major role in educating the populace about contraception and to encourage its adoption. Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception use among female nurses of reproductive age in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 216 nurses was conducted using simple random sampling technique to select the participants. A pretested, self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was employed to obtain information from respondents. Data analysis with SPSS 20.0 was done using descriptive statistics to summarize variables and inferential statistics (Chi-square) used to test the association between categorical variables. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results: The mean age was 33.07 ± 7.71. All participants were aware of contraception knowledge was adequate in majority of respondent (77.3%). Majority (88.4%) of respondent had favourable attitude towards contraceptive use with 68.5% using some form of contraception Major reason for non-use of contraception was fear of side effects (12.1%). Factors significantly associated with contraceptive use were age (p <0.001), marital status (p<0.001), tertiary education (p=0.048), having at least one child (p<0.001), tertiary level of education of partner (p=0.001), good knowledge of contraception (p=0.001) and good attitude towards contraceptive use (p<0.023). Conclusion: The study shows that age, marital status, level of education, number of children, educational qualification of partner, knowledge of contraceptives, and attitude to contraceptive use were significantly associated with this finding.