Effect of Male Partner’s Support on Spousal Modern Contraception in a Low Resource Setting

Abstract

Background: As efforts continue to increase contraceptive uptake, male partner support remainsimportant in spousal modern contraceptive use.METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional survey involving women on modern contraception wasconducted at the family planning clinic of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, betweenDecember 2013 and April 2014. All consenting participants completed a self-administered questionnairedesigned for the study, and statistical analysis was done with SPSS version 20.0 using with chi squaretest and logistic regression; p value <0.05 was significant.RESULTS: There were 305 participants: 208(68.2%) were multipara, the commonest current andprevious contraceptives used were IUD and injectables while male partner was responsible fordiscontinuation in 30(23.3%) of previous users. Covert contraceptive use was 22(7.2%), male partnersupport was 209(68.5%) as payment for the contraceptives (203; 66.6%) or transportation to the clinic(198; 64.9%). Also, 55(18.0%) women failed to comply with contraception recently due to male partnerhindrance (25;45.5%) or inability to pay for contraceptive (11;20%) or transportation to the clinic(8;14.5%). Male partners hindered contraception by reporting the woman to relatives/friends (8;32%) ordenying her money for feeding allowance (6;24%); 277(90.8%) women want contraception to be coupledecision while 261(85.6%) want contraception administered only if both partners consented. Thesignificant predictors of male partner support were awareness about the contraceptive use(p<0.001,OR0.114; CI0.041-0.319), level of education (p0.007,OR1.488;CI1.114-1.9870) and social class(p0.029,OR0.690;CI0.495-0.963).CONCLUSION: Male partner hindrances and costs of contraceptive or transportation to clinic areimportant in noncompliance.Male partner education, subsidized/free contraceptives andmobile/community services will improve compliance.