Contraceptive self-injection knowledge, attitude and practices among female students of a tertiary health institution in south west Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Contraception is one of the key strategies to achieving sustainable developments but access has been low among youths in developing countries. It is thus imperative to contextually understand the uptake of one of the newly developed contraceptive methods among undergraduate Nigerian students.  This study assessed knowledge, attitude and practices of students in Bowen University Teaching Hospital Ogbomoso on contraceptive self-injection (DMPA-SC).Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional design was employed among 167 consenting students who were recruited using stratified sampling method. Validated semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out.Results: Mean age (SD) of the respondents was 21.9±2.2. More than a quarter (32.0%) of the respondents were not aware of contraceptive self-injection. Attitude to contraceptive self-injection was positive in 91% of those who were aware of it. However, just 2.4% of the contraceptive users ever used contraceptive self-injection. Cost considerations (25%), fear of side effects (17%), feeling of being not at risk of pregnancy (33.3%) and lack of awareness (25%) were the major barriers to uptakes of contraceptive self-injection among our respondents. Almost three-quarter (71.0%) of the respondents had good knowledge of self-injection contraception. Age, (AOR=5.038, 95% CI=1.846-1.274) and attitude (AOR=3.286, 96% CI=2.253-4.794) were the determinants of good knowledge on contraceptive self-injection.Conclusions: In spite of the predominant positive attitude and good knowledge on contraceptive self-injection, uptake was low in the study population. Authors recommend increased awareness campaign regarding this method of contraception among health-related students who can be vanguards of information dissemination on the product.