الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 111 |  |  |
| | | from | 111 | | |
Abstract
Unintended pregnancies remain a significant global public health problem. It mainly occurs due to low contraceptive prevalence or incorrect use of contraceptive methods. Increased risk of unintended pregnancies result in adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as illegal and unsafe abortions, associated consequences, including psychosocial problems, maternal morbidity and death, prematurity and low birth weight.
Hence promotion of family planning services and increasing contraception prevalence is the cornerstone to decrease the risks associated with unplanned pregnancies. Family planning allows couples to attain their desired number of children and spacing their pregnancies so, it should be adopted as a way of thinking and living.
Several factors could play a pivotal role in making decision regarding the choice of Family planning such as: socio-demographic characteristics, religion, knowledge, misconceptions and rumors about contraceptive methods, effectiveness of methods and women health beliefs. Health Belief Model attempts to predict health-related behavior in terms of certain belief patterns. Thus it is used as a framework in this study to assess health beliefs among female contraceptive users.
Aim of the study
The present study aims to identify health beliefs among female contraceptive users.
Materials and method
Setting:
The current study was conducted at four family planning clinics affiliated to four maternity hospitals were included namely: EL-Shatby Maternity university hospital affiliated to Alexandria University, Dar-Ismail Maternity hospital affiliated to ministry of health, Faisal hospital affiliated to health insurance and Dar ELWelada hospital (Maternitee) affiliated to medical health association.
Subjects:
A convenience sample of 320 women who attended to previously mentioned settings were recruited.
Tools of data collection:
Two tools were used for data collection:
Tool (I): Contraceptive users’ basic data structured interview schedule: This tool was developed by the researcher and it entailed the following 4 parts:
Part one: Socio- demographic characteristics such as: age, level of education and occupation. In addition to residence, family type and income.
Part two: Reproductive history such as: gravidity, parity, number of abortions, stillbirths as well as number and sex of living children.
Part three: Medical and surgical history such as hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes, as well as pelvic and abdominal operations.
Part four: Current and previous contraception use history as name of previous and current contraceptive method, decision making about using current contraceptive method and duration of use.
Tool (II): - Contraceptive users’ health belief scale:
This tool was adopted from two scales (Champion, 1993) and (Becker et al., 1977) to suit the Egyptian culture. It entails 32 items divided into 5 constructs. In general each item was scored according to a 4 point likert format from1to4.Strongly disagree (1), Disagree (2), Agree (3) and strongly agree (4). These constructs namely:
Firstly, Perceived susceptibility: It included (3items)
Secondly, perceived severity: It included (7items).
Perceived benefits: It included (11items).
Perceived barriers: It included (11items).
The main findings of the present study were:
A- Socio- demographic characteristics :
- Almost an equal percents of the subjects were either in their late thirties (42.50%) or in their late twenties and early thirties (41.88%). Almost one third (29.69%) of them were university graduate. About one - half (51.56%) of them were housewives.
B- Reproductive history:
- Approximately one-half (49.38%) of them had three pregnancies or more. Almost two-fifths (38.44%) of them had three deliveries or more. The vast majority of them had no history of either abortion (84.06%) or stillbirth (98.44%).
C- Medical and surgical history:
- The vast majority (89.06%) of the study subjects have no medical history. Slightly less than three- fourths (70.94%) of them had no gynecological diseases.
- Slightly more than one-half (52.19%) of them had reported that they had surgical history such as CS, tonsillectomy and appendectomy
D- Previous and current contraceptive use:
- The majority (87.81 %) of the study subjects had previously used family planning methods.
- More than one -third (37.18%) of the subjects were current IUDs users. While about one quarter (25% &22.19%) of them were either oral contraceptive pills users or injectables users respectively, and a minority15.63% of them were implant users.
- The decision making for the current use of FP methods was made by the doctor among almost one half (48.44%) of them. Slightly more than one- half (51.88%) of them had follow up visits.
- The majority (82.50%) of them had side effect from contraceptive methods which included menstrual disorders in two- fifths (40.94%) of them.
E- Over contraceptive health beliefs among all study subjects:
- More than one- half (56.56%) of the study subjects perceived themselves highly susceptible for threat of getting pregnant. About three- fourths (76.25%) of them had moderate perceived severity to the problems associated with contraceptive use. As much as 84.37% of them had high perception of benefits of contraception utilization. Meanwhile, almost all (93.44%) of them had moderately perceiving barriers associated with contraception utilization such as long waiting time and distance to the family planning clinic.
F- The relationship between women’s health beliefs and their utilization of contraceptive methods:
- There was a statistically significant correlation between study subject’s health beliefs and their utilization of contraceptive methods. Namely, perceived susceptibility (MCP = 0.00), perceived severity (MCP =0.00), perceived benefits (MCP = 0.00) and perceived barriers (MCP = 0.02)
Recommendation:
Based on the findings of the present study, the following recommendations are suggested:
• Items of health belief scale should be adopted as integral part of family planning assessment sheet.
• Pre- service - and in service training are recommended for health care providers regarding family planning improvement strategies based on health belief model.
• Health beliefs regarding contraception utilization are suggested to be involved in the maternity curricula.
• Raising public and community awareness about importance of family planning and correction of their misconceptions regarding contraception utilization through mass media and social networks.
Further studies:
Replication of the present study in different Egyptian governorates especially rural areas and Upper Egypt to compare and validate the present study findings.
Using the health belief model as a conceptual framework for explaining contraceptive compliance.
The effect of application of health belief model on changing the women’s beliefs regarding contraception uptake needs to be investigated.