Factors affecting contraceptive practice amongst in-school adolescents in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated factors affecting contraceptive practice amongst in-school adolescents in Ebonyi State Nigeria. The factors affecting contraceptive practice are as follows: lack of knowledge, accessibility, cost, side effects, religious beliefs and culture to mention but a few. Few study have been done on factors affecting contraceptive practice amongst in-school adolescents in other states apart from Ebonyi State Nigeria. A multilevel approach is required to address the interrelated factors and to create an enabling environment in which adolescents are fully informed and equipped to make use of contraceptive. The theoretical frameworks of this paper are social cognitive theory and health belief model (HBM). The study adopted a cross sectional design and it consists of questionnaire, in-depth interview guide (IDI) and focus group discussion guide (FGD). The study population is 126,837 in-school adolescents with sample size of 264 was generated using fishbein statistical formula. The multi stage sampling which involves simple random sampling was used to select respondents and statistical package for social science (SPSS) was used for the processing and interpretation of quantitative data using frequency table, percentage and illustration of graphics. The findings shows that lack of knowledge on how to use contraceptive properly, religion beliefs and culture are barrier towards contraceptive practice amongst in-school adolescents. It was recommended that reproductive health education should be include in secondary school curriculum to educate in-school adolescents about contraceptive practice.