WI-HER to Present on Predictors of Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning at 2013 International Conference on Family Planning
Press release on October 31, 2013
Join WI-HER, LLC on November 15, 2013 as we present our research on predictors of male attitudes towards family planning in Uganda at the International Conference on Family Planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
As is true in many parts of the world, men’s attitudes can significantly influence women’s uptake and continuation of family planning methods in Uganda. Generating greater uptake of family planning methods among Ugandan men will meet Uganda’s high unmet need for family planning and may lead to fewer unwanted pregnancies, greater gender equity in this domain, and where condoms are used, decreased prevalence of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. With this research, we aimed to examine and identify predictors of men’s attitudes towards family planning. Since WI-HER, LLC supports male involvement and gender integration programs in multiple technical areas in our work with the USAID ASSIST project in Uganda, we were interested in identifying points of intervention and opportunities to build on equitable views. Using data from the 2011 Uganda DHS, logistic regression was performed to assess likelihood of discussing family planning methods with a health worker and predictors of men’s attitudes towards family planning use. Age was significantly associated with talking to a health worker; interventions should be targeted towards younger, wealthier men, and TV and newspaper are successful media for spreading behavior change messages. Age, education, and urbanity were significantly associated with believing family planning is a woman’s domain; interventions should be targeted towards older, less educated, men and those in rural areas. We believe we can use identified predictors to inform the design and implementation of programmatic interventions that will increase uptake of contraception among women and men and shift attitudes around family planning to be more gender equitable. This work has clear implications for improvement activities currently being implemented by URC Uganda.
For more information about the study, please join use at our presentation or see our abstract (http://www.xcdsystem.com/icfp2013/program/index.cfm?aID=2731&seID=451). Our presentation, “Predictors of Men’s Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Uganda: An Analysis of the 2011 Uganda DHS” (Res711), will be presented on Friday, November 15, 2013 during Session 3.1.11 at 10:30 AM-11:50 AM, located on the 2nd level in Caucus Room 18. If you are attending the conference, please join us! If you are interested in connecting at any point throughout the conference, please contact Megan Ivankovich, mivankovich@wi-her.org.