ACCEPTANCE AND UTILISATION OF FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES AMONGST SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT: Family planning is an important preventive measure against maternal and child morbidity and mortality. It is an essential component of primary health care and reproductive health. There is relatively high fertility rate in suburban and rural Nigeria despite the efforts of government and other non-governmental family planning services providers. This study sought to investigate the acceptance and utilisation of family planning services amongst secondary school students in Kakwalaka Village, Bendi in Obanliku Local Government Area of Cross River state. It is a descriptive cross-sectional, conducted among 364 secondary school students (15 to 49 years), utilizing the multi-stage sampling technique.139 (37%) of the respondents were within the age group 15 to 24 years, all respondents were married (100%) and 135 (37%) had more than 5 children. About half of the respondents (48.7%) had no formal education. Few were currently using a contraceptive method, however, the majority whom were not using any method had main reasons being lack of appropriate knowledge on family planning, fear of side effects and availability. The most significant socio-demographic determinants of utilization of family planning services were religion (p-value 0.01), family setting (p-value <0.001),age (p-value 0.01) and male involvement (p-value <0.001) . The utilization of family planning services among the rural women was poor, with religion, fear of side effect and husbands’ disapproval among other reasons being the main reasons for non use.