Factors Influencing the Use of Intrauterine Devices Among Women of Child Bearing Age Attending Family Planning Clinic at Mulago Hospital.

Abstract

This report presents a descriptive study that was carried out in Kampala District at the Family Planning clinic at Mulago Hospital aimed towards finding out the Factors influencing the use of Intra Uterine Devices among women of child bearing age attending Family Planning Clinic at Mulago Hospital.

The general objective was to establish the factors that influence the use of Intra Uterine Devices among women of child bearing age attending Family Planning Clinic at Mulago Hospital and the specific objectives were to establish the socio economic, hospital-related and cultural factors influencing the use of Intra Uterine Devices among women of child bearing age attending Family Planning clinic at Mulago Hospital. With a quantitative, cross sectional descriptive design approach, data was collected using structured and pretested questionnaires that were handed out to a total of 133 respondents selected by Random sampling after giving their consent. Data collected was analysed using table tallying and the results presented using frequency tables, pie charts and graphs.

The results showed that majority of the clients attending the Family Planning Clinic are married Christian youths who have attained some education and the most popular and highly used contraceptive method is the Implant followed by the IUDs. Among the socio economic factors looked at, the lack of male involvement in Family Planning activities hindered the use of IUDs. Health workers encouragement to use IUDs played a major role in its uptake and this was the main hospital related factor leading to low use of IUDs. However the cultural factors explored showed no hindrance to use of IUDs.

The conclusion was based on the findings which showed that the use of IUDs at the Family Planning Clinic, Mulago Hospital was low given the fact that the Family Planning services are free and readily available to the clients. The recommendations to the staff of Family Planning Clinic, Mulago Hospital were to encourage the clients to use IUDs more since the Family Planning services are free, creating awareness of the benefits of using IUDs through advertising on radios, televisions and in newspapers. Furthermore, the staff was advised to encourage the women to involve their husbands and come with them for the Family Planning visits for example by serving couples first, giving them front row seats during learning sessions and many more. Lastly the health workers were advised to give detailed information about the IUDs that is; the mode of action, the insertion and removal procedure, side effects, contra indications, when to visit the health centre and the red flags to look out for.