Awareness and opinions regarding contraception by women of reproductive age in North-West Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: North-west Nigeria is a traditionally high fertility setting. Increasing attention is being channeled into scaling up the various interventions that can reduce high fertility, including enhancing contraceptive uptake among women of reproductive age. However, in order to improve demand for contraception, understanding the level of awareness, knowledge and perception of WRA to contraceptive use is essential. This study examines the level of knowledge and perception of WRA to contraceptive use. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in December 2016 in Kebbi and Sokoto states, North-west Nigeria. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 500 women between the ages of 15-49 years in 4 randomly selected local government areas across the states. Data analysis included descriptive and bi-variate statistics. RESULTS: Only 43.8% claimed to be currently using a modern form of contraception; 82.4% were aware of at least one form of contraception, while health personnel formed the major source of information. The most popular and least common modern contraceptive methods were the male condom (86.8%) and vasectomy (26.6%) respectively. A higher proportion of married respondents (88.8%) than those presently single (68.8%) had good knowledge of contraceptives. Perception of contraceptives was mixed, with majority believing that contraceptives should be made available to every woman, despite stating that it contradicted their religious beliefs. CONCLUSION: These results underline the need for policy makers to focus on improving the knowledge of younger age groups on contraceptives and include other information channels such as peer-to-peer discussions to increase awareness.

Our chairman is very efficient: community participation in the delivery of primary health care in Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: Community participation is rapidly being viewed as a requirement for the successful acceptance of health services; it integrates a complicated process which involves customs, beliefs, culture and power relations, not only structures and policies. Yet, there is a wide knowledge gap and changes favouring community participation in primary health care is still minimal. This study aims to assess the process indicators and other factors influencing community participation in the delivery of primary health care. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study using qualitative methods was conducted in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria between July and September, 2015. The interview and Focus Group Discussion guides centred around five participation indicators of needs assessment, leadership, resource mobilization, organization and management was used to collect data. A total of 12 in-depth interviews and four FGDs were conducted among male and female respondents consisting PHC service providers and community members purposively selected from four wards of the LGA. Spidergrams were constructed to visualize the levels of community participation from respondents' opinions. RESULTS: About 51.1% of the 45 respondents (with mean age 45.5 ± 8.09 years) were males. The respondents view community participation in the delivery of PHC in the LGA as being wide (open). Majority of the service users believe and agree that the level of community participation in their wards is about average while the service providers believed that participation was very high. However, respondents identified female representation, collaboration with pre-existing community structures, top-down and bottom-up approach to service delivery as factors affecting community participation in PHC delivery. CONCLUSION: This study provides a baseline data on community participation in the delivery of primary health care. Community participation is still an important principle in the delivery of primary health care and it guarantees the positive changes desired in the uptake and sustainability of primary health care programmes.