Factors Affecting Males’ Acceptance of their Female Partners Use of Modern Contraceptives in Sefwi Wiawso Municipality

Abstract

Introduction: Globally, fertility and family planning issues are often female-oriented and men are rarely involved in such discussions especially in Africa. However, understanding men’s perspectives concerning the use of family planning services could provide an opportunity to improve modern contraceptive use among women of reproductive age. This study, therefore, sought to determine men’s acceptance of modern contraceptive use by their female partners in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative survey design with a structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. A total of 532 men who were in the union for at least one year with a female partner were sampled to participate in the study. To select participants in the study, a multi-stage sampling design was used. Five sub-municipalities out of seven sub-municipalities in the first stage and four communities each out of five sub-municipalities in the second stage were selected using a simple random sampling method. Twenty-seven men who were in the union for at least one year with a female partner were selected at random in each community to constitute the unit of analysis. The data collected were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using Stata version 15.0. Descriptive analysis and cross-tabulation were conducted to estimate the proportion of men who would accept their female partner’s use of modern contraceptive. Bivariate and logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with men’s acceptance of modern contraceptive use by their female partners. Results: Awareness of modern contraceptive was high (94.36%) among respondents. The majority (80.26%) of respondents were willing to allow their female partners to use modern contraceptives. After adjusting for other variables, locality, education, religion, and ever use of modern contraception remained statistically significantly associated with men’s acceptance of the partners’ use of modern contraceptives (p <0.05). Conclusion: Males’ acceptance of their female partners’ use of modern contraceptive in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality is high. A combination of modifiable and non-modifiable socio-demographic and community-level factors affects men’s acceptance of their female partners’ use of modern contraceptives. Interventions should be targeted at modifiable factors that influence men’s acceptance of their female partners’ use of modern contraceptives.