Contraception Usage: Knowledge, Attitude and Associated Factors among Women of Reproductive Age Attending a Health Facility in Benin City, Nigeria

Background: Contraceptive usage remains a challenge in developing countries. Despite high contraceptive awareness and knowledge, studies have shown disappointingly very low contraceptive usage. The 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) report places modern contraceptive usage in Nigeria at 10%, amounting commutatively as a 6% increase over a 24 year period. This study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude, contraceptive usage and associated factors among women of reproductive age attending a health facility in Benin City, with the goal of developing programs and interventions to improve contraceptive usage.

Methods: A health facility based descriptive cross sectional study design was utilized for this study, involving researcher administration of semi-structured questionnaires to 161 consenting women (15-49 years) attending immunization clinics in a health facility in Benin City. The data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21.0 statistical software with statistical significance set at p< 0.05 and 95% Confidence Interval.

Results: One hundred and thirty eight (85.7%) women studied were aware of contraception with 128 (92.8%) having correct knowledge of contraception. One hundred and fourteen (82.6%) women had positive attitudes towards contraception use while (17.4%) had negative attitudes. Furthermore, the per cent of contraceptive users was calculated to be 64.5% (n=89) among women studied. Multivariate analysis following bivariate analysis identified being single (OR=0.136; 95% CI = 0.026 - 0.719; p=0.019) and having negative attitude (OR=0.367; 95% CI = 0.147 - 0.917; p=0.032) towards contraception to be negatively associated with contraception usage when compared to being married and having positive attitude towards contraception.

Conclusion: The level of awareness and knowledge on contraception among women studied was high, with gaps identified to exist between knowledge, attitude and contraceptive usage. There is need to develop interventions to sustain and improve contraception usage among women in Benin City, Edo State.