Assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding use of modern contraception among undergraduate students at Makerere University, Uganda
Abstract
Various studies done among university students still show low uptake and use of modern contraceptives despite the many forms of modern contraceptives that are available today, with mass campaigns aimed at educating these students on contraception and its benefits. Among those that use contraceptives, majority are inconsistent in their use. This therefore calls for more research to be carried out to find the loopholes and hence device strategic interventions aimed at increasing uptake, correct and consistent use of contraceptives among university students. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices towards use of modern contraceptive methods among undergraduate students at Makerere University. A cross-sectional study was conducted in two colleges; College of Health Sciences and College of Humanities and Social Sciences which enroll undergraduate students every academic year. A pre-designed semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from undergraduate students of age 18-30 years that study in any of the two chosen colleges. The study used the modified Kish-Leslie formula (Leslie-Kish, 1965) for cross-sectional studies and from the method the sample size was 227 students. A systematic random sampling procedure was used to obtain the respondents. Data was collected electronically and analyzed at univariate level using STATA 14 software. A total of 227 undergraduate students were enrolled into this study. Fifty two percent (52%, 118/227) of the participants were females, the rest being males. Majority of the students (56.8%) were aged between 18-22 years and most of them were never married (91.6%). More than half (59.5%) of the study participants were third year students. Majority of the participants had heard about modern contraceptives with the major sources of information being friends (93.8%), social media (70.4%), Literature (54.9%), health worker (51.2%) and Radio/TV (38.5%).
Most of the participants knew of more than one modern contraceptive method with male condoms (89.4%) and contraceptive pills (84.6%) being the most mentioned whereas the LAM and the Standard days method were the least known methods. Participants had positive attitudes towards modern contraception. Almost half (44.5%) of the participants were currently in sexual relationships at the time of the study. Male condoms were the most used contraceptive method followed by contraceptive pills (23.6%). Knowledge levels on modern contraceptives were high among the participants and they also had positive attitudes towards use of modern contraceptive methods. However, there was low contraceptive use. This shows that knowledge of modern contraceptive methods coupled with positive attitudes towards contraceptive use does not necessarily translate into usage. There may be need for comprehensive information beyond awareness of methods.