Abstract

BACKGROUND: Globally, family planning is one of the most important public health issues in both developed and developing countries due to high unmet needs.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) towards family planning among women of reproductive age in Suva, Fiji.

METHODS: The study applies a cross-sectional quantitative method using a self-administered questionnaire to collect data. Using random sampling, a sample of 325 women was used for the study and they were sought from three health clinics in Suva, Fiji. The questionnaire was administered to the respondents who met the inclusion criteria and they provided information that mostly involved rating the different issues and identifying their level of KAP. This data was analyzed using the statistics program SPSS version 25.

RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 31.53 (±7.35) years. A majority of the participants (64.6%) belonged to a Christian church while 65.2% belonged to iTaukei ethnic group. Approximately half of them (45.6%) had a high level of knowledge while 53.5% had moderate knowledge with only 0.9% reporting that they had poor knowledge. In terms of attitudes, 54.2% of the participants had high level or positive attitudes towards family planning with only a small proportion of 0.3% had low level or poor attitudes. In terms of practice, a majority of the participants (65.9%) had medium level of practice towards family planning while 24.6% showed a poor level with 9.5% having a high or good level of practice towards family planning.

CONCLUSIONS: This study identified that women had medium level of knowledge and practice towards family planning, but their attitude was relatively high. Using behavioral change models such as health belief model (HBM) that focus on perceived benefits and barriers may help to promote KAP towards family planning among Fijian women.

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