KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF CONTRACEPTIVES AMONG ADOLESCENT MOTHERS IN OGBERE COMMUNITY, EGBEDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The reproductive health of adolescents and young people has continued to receive attention in many countries, including Nigeria. Previous studies in the country show that many young people engage in early sexual activities with multiple partners. Unfortunately, most of these sexual activities are unplanned or unprotected, resulting in unwanted pregnancies and associated complications. Many of the studies focused on use of contraceptives among young people who are not married and are in school. However, little attention has been paid to adolescents who are mothers and are out-of-¬school. Hence, the objectives of this study were to assess knowledge and use of contraceptives among adolescent mothers in Ogbere community, Egbeda Local Government Area, Oyo State. This study was descriptive in design. Data were collected through face-to-face interview using a pre-tested questionnaire. The questions covered socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive history, and outcome of pregnancy, knowledge and use of contraceptives and reproductive health rights. A cluster sampling procedure was used to select 7 (50%) clusters/ villages from a sample frame of 14 clusters, followed by a systematic random sampling of 703 households, from which a total of 316 eligible respondents were selected. The age of respondents ranged from 17 to 20 years with a mean of 18 years. Two hundred and forty-three (76.9%) were married. 65 (20.6%) cohabited, 3 (2.8%) were separated, 1 (0.3%) was divorced and 4 (13%) were single. The highest level of education attained by most respondents 230 (72.3%) was primary. One hundred and eighty-seven (59.2%) were petty traders, while 67 (21.1%) were artisans. The range of pregnancies that occurred since menarche was between 1 and 3, with a mean of 1.28. On knowledge of contraceptives, majority 207 (65.5%) knew at least four of the ten listed contraceptive methods. The most commonly known contraceptives were condoms 87 (27.5%), oral contraceptive pills 81 (25. 8%), injectables 72 (22.8%). and spermicides (foaming tablets) 35 (11.0%). There was no association found between level of educational attainment and knowledge of contraceptives (p>0.05). The sources of information for contraceptives were mainly health workers 84 (40.6%), radio 78 (37.7%) and television 20 (9.7%). Ninety-two (29.1%) had ever used any form of contraceptives, 224 (70.9%) had not. Eighty-one mothers (25.6%) were currently using contraceptives. The most commonly used methods were condoms 36 (44.4%) and pills 13 (16.1%). The main reasons adduced for non-use of contraceptives were ’Need for children’ 58 (24.8%), ’Don't believe in contraceptives’ 36 (15.3%), ’Lack of knowledge’ 13 (5.5%) and 'No reasons’ 105 (44.7%). Neither the marital status nor parity of the respondents had any significant effect on current use of contraceptives (p<0.05). The adolescent mothers scored an average of 0.97 on the 6 points STDs knowledge scale that was constructed. In conclusion, majority of the adolescent mothers showed fair knowledge and poor utilization of contraceptives. This may predispose them to high parity and related social consequences. This also underscores the need for community based health education to promote contraceptive use among adolescent mothers.