Contraceptive knowledge and practice: a survey of under graduates in Ibadan, Nigeria.

UNLABELLED: Despite the mounting reproductive health problems among adolescents in Nigeria, very little has been done at governmental level to address the problem, hence presenting a major health concern and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the knowledge, attitude of the undergraduates to contraception and their practice of the various contraceptive options.

METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done among the undergraduates of the Polytechnic of Ibadan and University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were given to 600 consenting undergraduates. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 11 software. Chi2 and Fisher exact tests were used for categorical variables as appropriate.

RESULTS: A large percent (65.1%) of the undergraduates were sexually experienced. Approximately, 90.2% of the respondents who had sex did so before the age of 19 years, 31.8% had more than one sexual partner, and 21.8% had clandestine abortions. All respondents were quite knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS but few (30.2%) of the sexually active took precautions to prevent HIV transmission. The majority (65.4%) were not knowledgeable about contraception, and 10.5% heard about contraception from parents. About 52.3% of the latter cited pharmacy shops as their source of contraceptives.

CONCLUSION: The attitudes of the students were below expectations. Specially designated centers for the provision of appropriate contraceptive services to students by trained personnel are needed in the institutions to tackle their reproductive health problems.