The Journal of Middle East and North Africa Sciences

1-9

Authors: Evelyn Sunnu; Peter Adatara

Background: Acceptance of contraceptive use by men and women in developing countries is believed to be influenced by people’s awareness, attitudes, and beliefs about contraceptive. Objective: The study investigated the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about contraceptive use among women and men among residents of the Ho Municipality in the Volta Region, Ghana. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey. A total of 340 respondents, men and women were randomly selected from the sub-municipalities in Ho for the study. The tool for data collection included structured questionnaires and an interview guide. Quantitative data was analyzed at the univariate and bivariate level using SPSS version 15.0 software, while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Findings: The average age of the men was 28.06 years (SD=7.28) while that of the women was 30.41 years (SD=8.12). Knowledge of contraceptive methods was high: (151/161) 96.3% of men and (153/169) 90.5% of women were aware of contraceptive; however, this did not translate into high usage. Only 67 (41.6%) of men and 59 (34.9%) of women were current users of modern contraceptive. The major perceptions and beliefs regarding family planning contraceptive use from the perspectives of men and women in this study included contraceptives were harmful to the womb, contraceptives use will make you increase in weight, contraceptives use can make you infertile, contraceptives are meant for only married people, and contraceptives should only be used by women because they become pregnant Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings of this study showed that the awareness of contraceptives use among community members were high, however, the high level of awareness of contraceptives use did not translate into high usage among men and women in the study area as there was still low contraceptive use.