Keywords (Extracted from title, table of contents and
abstract of thesis) Status, Involvement, Socio,
Implications, Exposure, Religiosity, Reproductive, Milieu,
Contraceptive, Cultural, Behaviour, Stress, Affairs, Health, Male,
Drug, Relationship |
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Abstract In Pakistan, male
involvement in reproductive health started long before the concept
of a holistic approach emerged from ICPD in 1994. Men are far behind
the knowledge about contraceptives, authority of decisions making,
religiosity, exposure of media, health attitude, physical cost,
Knowledge of HIV/STDs, drugs and family planning services.These
circumstances have damaging-effect on men's reproductive health as
well.The poor reproductive health of men in the entire Pakistan has
been reported in many studies.The different national and
international agencies have shown a great concern on this alarming
situation of men's deteriorating reproductive health status.They
have recommended to investigate the men reproductive health status
in relation to different aspects. In this context the main
objectives of this study is to identify and analyze different types
of socio-cultural characteristics, affect the attitudes, lack of
awareness of respondents toward reproductive health behaviour were
examioned in Punjab-Pakistan.
A cross sectional study was conducted in 3-districts of Punjab
province. One tehsils from each district selected randomly and
sample of 272 men from Tehsil-1 i.e. Rawalpindi, 197 from Tehsil-2
i.e. Bahawalpur and 131 from Tehsil-3 i.e.Toba Tek Singh. From each
Tehsil equal no. of respondents was selected from rural and urban
areas by random sampling technique to explore the research
objectives. In this way the total sample size will be 600. 300 from
rural and 300 from urban areas. A well-structured questionnaire
consisting of open ended and close ended questions has been prepared
in the light of research objectives.Pre-testing was also in the
study plan to examine the work-ability of questionnaire and to know
the sensitive issues which can be tackled intelligently. Results:
Bi-variate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the
relationship between different terms MRHB.The results regarding age,
age at marriage, duration of marriage, communication with wife,
fertility preference, discussion about reproductive health problems,
general health status, Knowledge about Contraceptive, Contraceptive
use behaviour, knowledge about HIV/STDs of the respondents and their
reproductive health behaviour were having there strong relationship
and communication of affairs with wife having no relation and in
multivariate analysis were used to build model and respondents age
at marriage, duration of marriage, education, income, communication
with wives, drugs using were highly significant and age of the
respondent, communication of affairs, ideal number of children in a
family were non-significant with MRHB..The value of adjusting R2 is
0.660 and it indicates that about 66% variation in the dependent
variable is explained by knowledge about contraceptive and use of
contraceptive, communication with wives, drug use, reproductive
health problems, general health, knowledge about HIV, Media
exposure.
Based on the research findings it is suggested that a general
acceptance of contraceptive use, men along with women should be
include in the target group as most of the decisions regarding
family planning and contraception necessitate prior approval of male
partners.Men shall be educate to give women all due rights
especially their reproductive rights and involve them in
reproductive and contraceptive decision making.Awareness should be
created amongst male to give their women freedom of expression and
let them join paid jobs, thereby making the family economically
prosperous.Perceptions of the respondents were clear about family
planning, awareness should be created against religious
misconceptions and make it more convenient for the illiterates in
the form of a packages deal. It would be more appropriate to tackle
family planning campaign in the light of baby care and mother health
along with strongly advocating improvement of economic conditions of
the family. All income groups should be convinced to use
contraceptives as an effective tool for family planning, more stress
should be given on low and medium income groups, discourage the
preferential gender treatment and involved their wives in all family
matters.Primary health center (PHC) programs must be geared to meet
men’s needs. Communication between spouses about RH should be
developed through awareness. PHC service providers are mostly
female, males should be inducted. |