ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE (KAP) OF FAMILY PLANNING AMONG RURAL WOMEN IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of family planning among rural women in Kogi state, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was used for this study and the sample size consisted of 384 respondents. To achieve this purpose, a researcher developed questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The population of the study comprised of 72,844 women of reproductive age. The instrument was vetted by five jurors from the Departments of Physical and Health Education and Nursing Sciences. Three hundred and eighty four (384) copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents. Three hundred and seventy nine (379; 98.7%) were adequately filled and retrieved from respondents. Five (5; 1.3%) copies of questionnaire were not filled correctly and therefore, those were not used. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed which comprised of; stratified, simple random, purposive, proportionate sampling procedure. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages, mean and standard deviation. To test the formulated hypotheses, one sample t-test was used. All the formulated null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The results of the study revealed that rural women in Kogi state, Nigeria have significant knowledge of family planning with a t-value of 3.201 (p-value of 0.021). The findings further showed that rural women in Kogi state do not have significant attitude towards family planning with t-value of 1.291 and p-value of 0.18, finally the results of the study revealed that rural women in Kogi State do not significantly practice family planning with a (p-value of 1.05). On the basis of the research findings, the following conclusions are drawn; that rural women in Kogi State were knowledgeable about family planning, that rural women in Kogi state do not have positive attitude and practice of family planning. The following recommendations were made based on the conclusions. Federal, state and local government health units should encourage women in sustaining their knowledge of family planning through community mobilization and enlighten programmes. The health directorate in collaboration with the family planning unit should roll out more programmes such as organizing workshops, seminars, to educate married couples on the benefits of family planning practices. This will bridge the gap between knowledge and practice of family planning.