UNIVERSITY OF CAPE CAOST

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACCEPTANCE OF VASECTOMY AMONG MARRIED MEN IN AGONA SWEDRU

SHADRACH DARE

MAY, 2011

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE CAOST

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACCEPTANCE OF VASECTOMY AMONG MARRIED MEN IN AGONA SWEDRU

BY

SHADRACH DARE

Project work submitted to the Department of Nursing of the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Cape Coast in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for award of the Bachelors of Science Degree in Nursing.

MAY, 2011

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Declaration Candidates Declaration I hereby declare that this project work is the result of my own original work and that no part of it has been presented for another degree in this university or elsewhere.

Candidates Signature: Name:

Date:

Supervisors Declaration

I hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of the project work were supervised in accordance with the guidelines on supervision of project work laid down by the University of Cape Coast.

Supervisors Signature:

Date:

Name:

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Abstract Despite the fact that vasectomy is safer, simpler and effective, it is underutilized and relatively unknown in Ghana. This study therefore sought to find out the factors affecting the acceptance of vasectomy as a method of contraception among married men in Agona Swedru. A descriptive cross sectional study using primary data from respondents was the research design. A researcher designed questionnaire which had been pretested was the major instrument used in the collection of data. A two stage cluster sampling was used in selecting 107 married men for the study. The results showed that the mean age of the respondents was 39.3 years. Majority (56.1%) of the respondents was aware of vasectomy but less than a quarter (22.4%) had complete knowledge about the procedure. Majority (55%) of the respondents had good perception about vasectomy. The major misperception held by the respondent was that vasectomy causes a man to gain weight. Religion, number of wives and spousal approval were statistically significant to vasectomy acceptance (p values= 0.046, 0.001and 0.000 respectively). Most (84%) of the respondents do not approve of vasectomy because they preferred other methods to vasectomy. Overall, the socio demographic characteristics of religion, economic status and level of education were related to ones decision to accept vasectomy. Knowledge level about vasectomy and spousal approval were identified as the overarching factors that contributed to vasectomy acceptance. It has been recommended to the municipal health management team that family planning programmes for men should aim at providing accurate and understandable information about vasectomy and make the service available. 50

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