Prevalence and Knowledge of Family Planning among Women of Reproductive Age Group in Primary Healthcare Centers in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) is a key indicator for measuring improvements in access to reproductive health. In Nigeria, the average CPR remains low at 17%, with wide variability in the knowledge of family planning (FP) methods across the states and communities. Thus, this study set out to 1. Determine the Contraceptive prevalence rate among women of the reproductive age groups (WRAGs) in Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) in Abuja. 2. Assess the knowledge of family planning and its methods among WRAGs in PHCs in Abuja. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among WRAG in two PHCs in Abuja. A simple random method was used to select 400 WRAGs, and the information from participants was captured with a pre-tested structured questionnaire. SPSS version 21.0 was used for data analysis, the hypothesis was tested with chi-square, and the results were significant at p-value < 0.05. The study analyzed 375 valid and complete questionnaires; the mean age was 30 ± 6.29 years, and 90.7% of respondents had at-least secondary school education. The CPR was 36%, and the most common FP methods were male condoms (11.6%), injectable birth control (5.4%), female condoms (4.7%), and implants (4.0%). About 66% of participants had good knowledge of FP methods, and this was associated with increased uptake of contraceptives. The CPR found in this study is considerably higher than the Nigeria national average. The finding aligns with the reported good knowledge of family planning and high literacy level. Furthermore, good knowledge of FP methods was significantly associated with increased contraceptive uptake. Keywords: Abuja, Contraceptive prevalence, Knowledge of family planning, Primary healthcare centers, Women of reproductive age group.