ABSTRACT
A cross-section and community-based study was designed to study 1274 currently married women of reproductive age from four villages, El- Ghanayem District, Assiut Governorate, 1996. A house-to-house survey was conducted using a pre-designed questionnaire to find the contraceptive knowledge, use and the affecting factors. The mean age at marriage was 18.4 +/- 3 years, the mean number of pregnancies was 5.8 +/- 3.5 and the mean number of living children was 3.9 +/- 2.3. The results also revealed that family planning knowledge is very high [93.30%], while the use is very low [16.7%]. IUD's [54%] and pills [33.8%] were the most commonly used methods of contraception. Mass 95 media and rural health unit were the main sources of knowledge of used methods [as 46% of the methods were delivered by the rural health unit]. TV sets that regularly deliver family planning messages and education were behind the high proportion of family planning awareness