Cultural, social and demographic determinants of seeking family planning knowledge, and practice among a Sudanese community

Abstract

Background: About 214 million women in the reproductive age in the developing countries who need to prevent and plan for their pregnancy are not using methods of modern contraceptives. The aim of this study was to investigate the socio-demographic and cultural elements that inform the health-seeking behavior towards family planning among Sudanese women in Sharq-Alneel locality in the Sudan-Africa. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify individuals within Sudanese families, who predominantly interfered with the decision of the women in using of contraceptives for family planning.Methods: A cross-sectional community based study was conducted in September-2017 to February-2018 using structured questionnaire to 576 Sudanese women age of 15-49 years from 4 administrative units. A multistage cluster sampling technique was adopted. Binary and multinomial logistic regression models were used to analyze the results using SPSS version 22.Results: Women respondents were (57.1%), and (42.9%) from rural and urban areas respectively. Women (89.3%) of respondents were married for more than five years. A 381 (66%) women respondents were not using contraception at the time of the study. Women in rural areas were 0.9 less likely to obtain information from other sources than from PHC. There was significant association (p<0.001) between women’s educational level and awareness about contraception.Conclusions: Women use of contraception in Sharq-Alneel was low. Barrier to contraception use for majority of women was that they believe their healths are at risk for using modern contraceptives. There was also high prevalence of respondents’ husbands refused the use of contraceptives.