Male Behavior Toward Reproductive Responsibilities in Sikkim

BACKGROUND: Failure to assess the impact of men's perceptions on reproductive health decisions has weakened reproductive health care programmes. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated husbands’ knowledge and practices with regard to the use of conventional contraceptives as manifested through reproductive health and sexual decisions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural setting of Sang PHC and Pakyong PHC area in Sikkim, India. Five hundred and ninety-six currently married men whose names were included in the eligible couple registers were selected by multistage random sampling. Information regarding knowledge and practice of contraceptive use was obtained from the participants by interview. RESULTS: Out of the 596 male participants, the majority (55.87%) opined that they were in favor of using a contraceptive method after one child. Most participants (55.54%) said that their main source of information on contraceptive methods were the government health staff, while 24.84% acknowledged that most of their information came from the mass media. Eighty-two percent reported currently using some kind of the contraceptive method. Condom was used as a temporary method by only 16.27% of the responders, with the permanent method of vasectomy being opted for by only 4.87%. The method most widely used by their partners was the oral contraceptive pill (43.41%), followed by tubectomy (15.77%) and IUD (4.19%). CONCLUSIONS: This research found that awareness and prevalence of contraceptive use among married men in a rural community in the East District of Sikkim were quite high. Nevertheless, female contraceptive methods continue to be the dominant method used in the community. Researchers and health care providers often ignore the sociodemographic significance of men and their role in the acceptance of contraceptive practices in the community.