Effect of Mass Media Exposure on Family Planning Practices in Uganda

Abstract

This research aimed at analyzing the effects of mass media on family planning practices in Uganda. As people embrace modern family planning methods, they start believing in information circulated through mass media. Mass media has been observed as a significant indicator on accelerating family planning practices through behavior change communication (BCC). Quantitative research methods were used on UDHS data for 57906 respondents, statistical tests, bivariate analysis and specifically a logistic regression model were used to assess the relationship between variables (income status, age, education level, sex, place of residence, occupation, ethnicity and mass media exposure) and family planning practices. Additionally, contingency tables were used to present the results from the research. The findings show that mass media impacts positively on family planning practice and using radio proved to be most effective means of informing people about family planning with 64.7%. Majority (62.7%) of the women were not practicing family planning, 63.08% had primary level of education, 82.78% were rural women, majority were married(81.09%), the biggest percentage of 49.97% of the women were self-employed and nearly 100% half mark of the respondents were poor (46.22%), As regards using contraceptives, most respondents were using Injections (16.75%), followed by implants (6.61%). Analysis shows that mass media in addition to other five socio-economic variables were significant thus can be used to explain variations in the family planning practices. These are income status, marital status, education level, religion and age. The multivariate regression results indicate that place of residence and occupation (women who never responded) are not statistically significant in the model. We recommend continued use of mass media since it proved an important factor in practice of family planning and that facilities providing family planning services are made more user friendly to accommodate all age groups.