Abstract
Improving the reproductive health of young women in developing countries requires access to safe and effective methods of fertility control. Volta Region records one of the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy and adolescents aged 15-19 years are the least acceptors of contraceptives in the Region. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study determined predictors of intention to use modern contraceptives among female Senior Secondary School students in the Kpando Municipality, Ghana. A cross-sectional design was adopted, collecting data among a multistage sample of 270 participants, using a pretested self-administered questionnaire and analysing them using Stata software Version 16 at the 0.05 level of significance. The mean age of the respondents was 16.78 ± 1.31. About 40.2% of the sexually experienced participants used a modern contraceptive during ther first sexual encounter. However, the majority (69.3%) had the intention to use modern contraceptives. Regarding subjective norms, the majority of the significant others (63.0%) were not supportive of modern contraceptive use and more than half of the respondents (59.3%) had a positive attitude towards modern contraceptive use, while 54.1% perceived that they had control over modern contraceptive use. The majority (69.3%) had the intention to use modern contraceptives. Perceived behavioural control was the only significant predictor of the intention to use modern contraceptives [AOR= 9.80 (C.I: 5.11, 18.77); p< 0.001]. Interventions to increase the perception of control over contraceptive use is of the essence. This will help increase their intention to use modern contraceptives.
Highlights
Improving the reproductive health of young women in developing countries requires access to and use of safe and effective methods of fertility control; special attention is needed to ensure that the contraceptive needs of vulnerable groups such as unmarried young women, adolescents, poor women and rural women are met to reduces inequities in access[1,2]
According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), behaviours can be predicted with high accuracy from positive attitudes toward the behaviour, supportive subjective norms, and high perceived behavioural control; and these with strong perceived behavioural intentions account for considerable variance in actual behaviour[7,8]
According to a meta-analysis conducted to explore whether the constructs in the TPB explain condom use behaviour, finding revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control accounted for 24.0% of the variance in condom use intention and were all significant correlates
Summary
Improving the reproductive health of young women in developing countries requires access to and use of safe and effective methods of fertility control; special attention is needed to ensure that the contraceptive needs of vulnerable groups such as unmarried young women, adolescents, poor women and rural women are met to reduces inequities in access[1,2]. According to a meta-analysis conducted to explore whether the constructs in the TPB explain condom use behaviour, finding revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control accounted for 24.0% of the variance in condom use intention and were all significant correlates. Evidence has shown that attitudes towards condom use and perceived behavioural control over condom use was significantly positively association with the intention to use it among in-school heterosexual youth in the Eastern region of Ghana[14]. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study determined predictors of intention to use modern contraceptives among female Senior Secondary School students in the Kpando Municipality, Ghana.
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