Knowledge, attitudes and practice of modern contraceptives among public and private health care providers in Geita district council, Geita

Abstract

Background: Health care providers play an important role in imparting health education to the public. In order to provide the awareness among public we need to be aware of the health care provider’s knowledge, attitude and practices. It is important to know whether the health care providers who are the health guider to the community, they themselves are using contraceptive. Despite of this important role to the community, their knowledge, attitude and use of modern contraceptives has not been adequately investigated in Tanzania. Objectives To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of modern contraceptives among health care providers in public and private facilities in Geita district council, Geita region. Material and methods This was a cross-sectional study design. Qualitative and quantitative methods were employednto collect data from health care providers. This study was done in Geita district, Geita Region from 18thJune to 19 July 2019. The study adopted interviewer administered questionnaire to collect data from 152 participants and used in-depth interview guide to collect data from 13 participants. Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) was used to analyse quantitative data and which are presented in terms of tabulation, frequency and graphs. Thematic approach was used to analyze qualitative data. Transcription of audio data was done and then transcripts translated from Swahili to English. Information in transcripts was categorized to develop codes (important categories). Themes were developed from codes and compiled to form main themes and presented in verbatim. Results This study found 82.2% of the participants had a good knowledge on contraceptive, 94.1% of the participants had positive attitudes about contraceptives and 77.6% reported to have ever used modern contraceptives methods and 77.6% reported that they will use contraceptives in future. Also this study found that only 38.2% of the participants were currently using contraceptives and condom was the most used method than other contraceptive methods. Conclusion Findings from this study indicate that healthcare providers have a good knowledge and positive attitude towards contraceptive methods although did not know the suitable methods for users, right time for someone to be offered contraceptive, some felt ambivalent about providing contraceptives for adolescents. Some felt the provision of contraceptives promotes promiscuity and that contraceptives lead to early sexual activity among adolescents. This study also indicated that very few healthcare providers are using contraceptive methods and the most used method was male condom and this may cause unwanted pregnancies if not used properly and this might affect the provision of long-term methods to the community.