 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Mian B. Hossain, MSC, MHS, PhD, MPH/DrPH Public Health Program, Morgan State University, 343 Jenkins Building, 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251-0001, 443-885-4132, mbhossain@moac.morgan.edu and ABM Khorshed A. Mozumder, MS, ICDDR,B, ICDDR,B, GPO Box-128, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh.
Background: Reproductive health program in Bangladesh have traditionally focused on addressing the perceived needs of women for family planning. There is growing recognition, however, of the importance of the needs of men in defining the climate of demand for family planning more generally. Bangladesh society is profoundly gender stratified and yet, male roles in reproductive health processes have not been rigorously investigated. While involving men in family planning has obvious conceptual appeal, studies demonstrating exactly what this means and why this is important have yet to appear in the literature. Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate husbands’ level of reproductive health knowledge and attitude and assess the independent effect of husband’s reproductive health knowledge on their wives reproductive behavior– contraceptive use. Methods: The data for this study is taken from a longitudinal surveillance system called Sample Registration System (SRS) managed at International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). Husbands and wives’ independent survey module for measuring their reproductive knowledge, attitude and behavior was administered in 1998 in two rural areas of Bangladesh. A total of 5,397 couples data from 1998 survey were used in this research. Results: Results show a significant association between husband’s fertility preference and current use of any family panning method. When socio-economic and husbands’ knowledge indicators are controlled for, the odds of using a method of contraception is 34 percent higher among couples whose husbands do not want more children compared to those whose husband want more children.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Reproductive Health, Male Reproductive Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.