KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTION OF FAMILY PLANNING AMONG MEN IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE

BACKGROUND : Family planning is a comprehensive set of strategies, methods, and services aimed at assisting individuals and couples in making informed decisions about when to have children and how many children to have. The ultimate goal of family planning is to empower individuals to have control over their reproductive choices, promoting their overall health and well-being while also contributing to broader societal and environmental considerations. By allowing individuals to decide when and how many children to have, family planning can help alleviate the strain on healthcare systems, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, and alleviate poverty. Moreover, it supports women's empowerment by enabling them to pursue education and career opportunities, thereby fostering gender equality. Limited research has been carried out to understand knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of men towards family planning . This study was important in order to further explore this subject. METHODOLOGY: This study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A total of 366 men participated in this research. A well-structured questionnaire was utilized as a survey tool to obtain responses. Data was collected, coded and entered into the SPSS version 23 spreadsheet. Responses were analyzed and results presented. RESULTS: Respondents in this study were male 366(100%). Out of 366 respondents that participated in the study, 99.7% have heard about family planning. CONCLUSION: The importance of family planning cannot be over emphasized as it contributes to family and environmental sustainability by helping to manage population growth and reduce the strain on natural resources. The Knowledge, perception and attitudes of men in this study has been shown to be good but continuous awareness should be made.