Knowledge and Acceptance towards Vasectomy in a Sample of Medicine Students, Meta 2018

Abstract

Introduction The low adherence to vasectomy is associated with the cultural environment, with false beliefs, and with lack of knowledge. In Colombia, the practice of vasectomy increased 3% between 1990 and 2015. Medical education seeks to have an impact on the general population; therefore, medicine students should have knowledge and attitudes toward birth control that include a significant participation of the male gender. Objective To describe the level of knowledge, beliefs, and acceptance of vasectomy in a sample of Colombian medicine students. Methods Cross-sectional descriptive study, nonprobabilistic sample by convenience with a total of 112 medicine students from different universities of the country attending at a university event. A total of 20 dichotomous questions were used. Results A total of 72.3% of the students answered correctly most of the answers; the knowledge level was grouped in high (53.35%), medium (41.07%), and low (5.35%). Up to 95.5% of the students recognized vasectomy as a male birth control method. Regarding beliefs, > 99% considered that family planning is not just a responsibility of women, although only 75% of the men would accept undergo a vasectomy. Conclusions Colombian medicine students have a good level of knowledge about vasectomy, they recommend performing the surgery, and recognize the active participation of males in contraception; nevertheless, a higher willingness to perform a vasectomy would be expected from this population. Training on the subject would break barriers about beliefs and promote proper counseling in birth control consultations.