Barries in involvement and participation of males in family planning in Iringa municipal, Tanzania

Abstract

Background: In Tanzania the use of FP is still low. The use of contraceptives in married men of 15 - 65 years for any method is 68.3% while out of that 49.4% use condoms. Objectives: The study intended to analyze barriers in the involvement and participation of male in FP. Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional analytical study usmg quantitative and qualitative research methods. The study was conducted in Iringa region and the quantitative part of study involved 284 randomly selected male respondents aged 15 - 65 years and above. The qualitative part of the study involved 11 key informants who were Health care providers from both government and private health facilities in the study area. Quantitative Data were entered and analyzed using Epi Info version 3.5.1 while Qualitative data was analyzed using Atlas it. Results: A total of 284 men responded to the questionnaires, most of them (44.4%) were between 25-34 years old. Findings showed that about 57% of respondents were involved in FP and 53% were participating in FP. Overall male involvement and participation was only 43%. Age, marital status and occupation were significantly associated with male involvement and participation. The study also revealed that men had positive attitudes towards FP. Among the reasons mentioned to hinder male participation in FP were religious beliefs being against use of FP, and Health facilities were found to be non male friendly Conclusion: Male involvement and participation in FP is still very low. The barriers for the enrolment of men in FP were said to be: few contraceptive options for men and little knowledge about options by the community, an unfavorable social or religious climate and also FP clinic setups are unwelcoming to men. Recommendation: The study recommends more information to men on FP methods and available FP option to them and use of different channels of communication in dissemination of FP information in a wide coverage. Increase in FP service accessibility and availability to men e.g. training of male FP providers to reach men .. The study also recommends strategies which might promote male involvement and participation in family planning like; Multi sectoral collaboration and revisiting FP policies, also considering FP as a cross cutting issue.