Social-cultural factors that influences the usage of family planning and contraceptive methods among men: A case study of Micheweni District – North Pemba in Zanzibar

This study aimed at discussing the social-Cultural factors that hinder men/husbands participate in family planning and contraceptive use in Micheweni District, North Pemba. The specific objectives included the following; To assess men’s level of knowledge on male oriented methods of family planning and contraceptives use, to explore spouses/partners attitude towards male oriented methods of family planning and contraceptive use and lastly to identify the roles of men in family planning programmes and contraceptive use. The study employed descriptive and explanatory research designs, together with qualitative methods of data collection. The data collection methods included interviews, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD’s) 145 respondents participated in this study. A total number of 28 respondents participated in the interviews which included women of the reproductive age (15-49 years) and men. Some key informants such as religious leaders, village community leaders and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) workers were included in the study population from each shehia. Purposive sampling was applied to obtain subjects who participated in the study for the qualitative aspect of the study whereas simple random sampling was used to identify respondents to participate in the quantitative. The findings showed that female were more knowledgeable than male respondents on both methods of contraception. Social- Cultural factors such as religion especially Islamic religious teaching and practices, the importance of having many children and availability of sea foods such as fish were the major factors that hinder men participating from family planning and contraceptive use. The study found that there are three categories of family planning and contraceptive use namely tradition, modern and religious. Religious methods such as breastfeeding and withdrawal are the mostly use methods. Positive attitude was reported by most of the respondents towards the usage of some religious and traditional methods of contraception. In some few cases negative attitude was reported is due to lack of knowledge and the side effects of contraceptives methods to women. The study also found that men are not well informed about their roles in family planning. Therefore, the study concluded that social and cultural factors influenced negatively and positively the use of male’s contraceptives methods among men. However, none of these social and cultural factors occurs in a vacuum, there are social institutions which create and maintain them such as religion and family. The study recommends that designing and redesigning of various family planning programmes should take into account the inclusion of the social and cultural aspects.