Determining knowledge, attitude and practice of men towards postnatal care services in mazabuka district of Zambia.

Abstract

The study was conducted with a purpose of determining knowledge, attitude and practice of men towards PNC services in Mazabuka district. This was to establish if men's involvement would improve the postnatal service utilization by women within the district. The hypothesis for the study was that the less the knowledge on postnatal care services, the poor the practice of utilisation the service and that; Men with positive attitude towards PNC services are more likely to utilise the services (practice). A non intervention descriptive cross section research design was used. Sampling was multi staged and later a purposive sampling method was applied to select fifty respondents as they came to the health facility for any service. Data was collected using a structured interview schedule on men over 17years regardless of their marital status, had a child before and residing in Mazabuka. Analysis of data was done manually on data master sheet and use of statistical package for social scientists version 16.0. Data was presented in the form of frequency tables, pie and bar charts. Cross tabulation tables were used to determine the relationship among variables. Results from the study revealed that 100% of the respondents had a positive attitude towards PNC services, 68% of the respondents had high knowledge and 82% had good practice. Majority (75%) of the respondents, who had good practice, had high levels of knowledge, 100% of the respondents with good practice and high knowledge had positive attitude. Respondents between 28-35 years and those with fewer children and with formal education had high knowledge. Distance to the health facility also had an influence on knowledge, attitude and practice. Health workers and spouses were the major sources of information on PNC services and 48.5% of those who sought PNC services said the treatment by health service provider was excellent. From these results, conclusions can be drawn that adequate knowledge and positive attitude are major contributors to good practice among men.