Description
Background
Vasectomy is a safe, cheap, easy to perform method of contraception. However, its uptake in Burundi is low. Moreover, matters of family planning are packaged as a female responsibility than male and it is not clear what attitude and knowledge married men and women have towards vasectomy.
Objective
To assess knowledge and attitude of married men and women towards vasectomy as well as factors that influence vasectomy uptake.
Methods
A cross sectional survey design was carried out utilizing a questionnaire. Stratified and simple random sampling were used. The sample size consisted of 234 respondents with 142 male respondents and 92 female respondents. Descriptive statistics and independent T test using SPSS version 17 were used for data analysis.
Results
51.2% of respondents had good knowledge about vasectomy. Sociodemographic characteristics affecting vasectomy included: level of education (p<0.001), Religion (p<0.001), Desired number of children (p<0.001) and age (p<0.001). The overall attitude towards vasectomy was poor with a mean attitudinal score of 47.1%. The majority of respondents did not accept vasectomy (91.6% of male respondents and 95.7% of female respondents). 95.6% of respondents agreed that vasectomy was not acceptable in the Burundian culture and 80% agreed that there was not enough information about vasectomy.
Conclusion
Overall knowledge of married men and women about vasectomy was good (52.1%), attitude towards vasectomy was poor and acceptance was low. Myths and misconception about vasectomy were noted. There is need for greater awareness of vasectomy knowledge as a potential vehicle to affect attitude change towards vasectomy.
