Abstract
BackgroundThe status of men’s knowledge of and awareness to maternal, neonatal and child health care are largely unknown in Bangladesh and the effect of community focused interventions in improving men’s knowledge is largely unexplored. This study identifies the extent of men’s knowledge and awareness on maternal, neonatal and child health issues between intervention and control groups.MethodsThis cross sectional comparative study was carried out in six rural districts of Bangladesh in 2008. BRAC health programme operates ‘improving maternal, neonatal and child survival’ intervention in four of the above-mentioned six districts. The intervention comprises a number of components including improving awareness of family planning, identification of pregnancy, providing antenatal, delivery and postnatal care, newborn care, under-5 child healthcare, referral of complications and improving clinical management in health facilities. In addition, communities are empowered through social mobilization and advocacy on best practices in maternal, neonatal and child health. Three groups were identified: intervention (2 years exposure); transitional (6 months exposure) and control. Data were collected by interviewing 7,200 men using a structured questionnaire.ResultsMen prefer to gather in informal sites to interact socially. Overall men’s knowledge on maternal care was higher in intervention than control groups, for example, advice on tetanus injection should be given during antenatal care (intervention = 50%, control = 7%). There were low levels of knowledge about birth preparedness (buying delivery kit = 18%, arranging emergency transport = 13%) and newborn care (wrapping = 25%, cord cutting with sterile blade = 36%, cord tying with sterile thread = 11%) in the intervention. Men reported joint decision-making for delivery care relatively frequently (intervention = 66%, control = 46%, p < 0.001).ConclusionImprovement in men’s knowledge in intervention district is likely. Emphasis of behaviour change communications messages should be placed on birth preparedness for clean delivery and referral and on newborn care. These messages may be best directed to men by targeting informal meeting places like market places and tea stalls.
Highlights
The status of men’s knowledge of and awareness to maternal, neonatal and child health care are largely unknown in Bangladesh and the effect of community focused interventions in improving men’s knowledge is largely unexplored
As the IMNCS project was started in August 2005 in Nilphamari, we classified this district as the ‘intervention’
This section includes the comparison between intervention and control areas
Summary
The status of men’s knowledge of and awareness to maternal, neonatal and child health care are largely unknown in Bangladesh and the effect of community focused interventions in improving men’s knowledge is largely unexplored. This study identifies the extent of men’s knowledge and awareness on maternal, neonatal and child health issues between intervention and control groups. Male partner involvement in women's sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal and child health care has recently attracted considerable attention. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 1994 [1] and the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing [2] drew attention to women’s health and the need to have men more involved in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health. Changing and improving the way men are involved in reproductive health problems can have positive impact on women’s, men’s and children’s health [4,5]. Social involvement In the intervention area, 11.7% of men compared to 20.3% in control districts were members of clubs, committees or samity. Entertainment, political, developmental, sports and religious issues were the main topics of their conversation (data not shown)
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