Needs for a gender-based perimarital couples’ counselling services in Iran

Abstract

Aim: To assess needs for a gender-sensitive perimarital counselling services in Iran. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods: This was a study on all 236 premarital counselling providers in 37 health centres in Shiraz-Iran. The tools for data collection included the following: (a) a demographic information questionnaire and; (b) a valid and reliable Needs Assessment questionnaire for Gender-Sensitive Perimarital Counseling Services (GSPCS) in 3 sections of needs for process, structure and policy making of the perimarital counselling services. Data were analysed using SPSS 21. Results: All health providers with average working experience of 8.63 (SD 5.35) years participated in the study. Results demonstrated highest scores for needs related to facilities as the structure of the services (90.09 SD 13.70 per cent) and community empowerment (89.50 SD 16.67 per cent) as the necessary policy for the gender-sensitive services. We concluded that providing gender-sensitive perimarital counselling healthcare services needs to reform the process, structure and policies of the services.