Abstract
Kenya ranks among the countries in Africa with high fertility rates. In order to reverse the trends in high fertility rates, there is need to increase uptake of family planning services particularly by use of community health workers (CHWs) in providing these services in rural areas. To describe the perceptions of women towards family planning service provision by CHWs in four rural districts of Western Kenya. It is based on baseline survey data from a three-year, rural community-based family planning project funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. A cross-sectional baseline survey was conducted in Western Kenya. The data presented is part of a broader the broader survey . A survey questionnaire was administered to 1,997 women (15-49 years) but only 963 cases were valid for our analyses. The findings revealed that only a third of the respondents exhibited high approval for Family Planning services from CHWs. Only four out of the thirteen variables explored showed significance on attitudes towards family planning services from CHWs. These are age, level of education, knowledge about family planning benefits and districts. Women's perception towards family planning services delivered by CHWs in Western region in Kenya is quite low. To improve the demand and supply for family planning services in this region, there is need to invest a substantial amount of effort into sensitization of women on the relevance of CHWs in providing family planning services.
Highlights
In African countries including Kenya, contraceptive use, fertility rates and other reproductive health indicators in rural areas lag behind urban areas1
This paper describes the perceptions of women towards family planning service provision by community health workers (CHWs) in four rural districts of Western Kenya
The result depicts some age pattern to resistance to use of family planning services offered by CHWs For many years provision of family planning methods has been done by trained health professionals at the health facility level, older women may find it more difficult to accept that this cadre of health workers could be trusted to administer family planning services at community level than young women
Summary
In African countries including Kenya, contraceptive use, fertility rates and other reproductive health indicators in rural areas lag behind urban areas. The persistent high fertility rate has been attributed to many factors including inadequate provision of family planning services To address these challenges, there is need to accelerate. In order to reverse the trends in high fertility rates, there is need to increase uptake of family planning services by use of community health workers (CHWs) in providing these services in rural areas. Objective: To describe the perceptions of women towards family planning service provision by CHWs in four rural districts of Western Kenya. To improve the demand and supply for family planning services in this region, there is need to invest a substantial amount of effort into sensitization of women on the relevance of CHWs in providing family planning services
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