Knowledge of women in family planning and future desire to use contraception: a cross sectional survey in Urban Cameroon

BACKGROUND: The rate of modern contraceptive use will be on an increase and maternal mortality on a decrease if women had a good knowledge on family planning and its methods. This survey was designed to evaluate the knowledge and determine the future desires to use contraception among women in Urban Cameroon. METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional community based survey from March 2015 to April 2015 targeting women of childbearing age in the Biyem-Assi Health District. Participants were included using a multistep cluster sampling and the data collected face to face by well-trained surveyors using a pretested and validated questionnaire. The data were then analysed using the statistical software Epi-Info version 3.5.4. Proportions and their 95 % confidence intervals were calculated and in a multiple logistic regression model with threshold of significance set at p value ≤0.05, the odds ratio was used as the measure of association between selected covariates and future desire to use contraception. RESULTS: Among the 712 women included in the survey, the mean age was 27.5 ± 6.5 years. A good proportion (95.6 %) identified contraception as used to prevent unwanted pregnancy and this showed an increasing trend with increasing level of education. Also, 77.5 % thought that contraception should be used by all sexually active women. The most cited contraceptive methods were; condom 689 (96.8 %), oral pills 507 (71.2 %), and implants 390 (54.8 %). Their main sources of information were the health personnel (47.7 %) and the school (23.6 %). It was estimated that 31.0 [25.5–37.0] % of current contraceptive non-users had no desire of adopting a contraceptive method in the future. With the level of education, age, and marital status controlled, the number of unplanned pregnancies more than 3 (OR 0.66 [0.45–0.97], p = 0.035), and past adoption of more than 2 modern contraceptive methods (OR 0.45 [0.21–0.97], p = 0.041) were statistically significantly associated to decreased desire to adopt contraception in the future. The level of knowledge showed an association though not statistically significant with future desire to use contraception (OR 0.80 [0.47–1.37], p = 0.061). CONCLUSION: The knowledge of women of childbearing in the Biyem-Assi Health District was relatively high but still unsatisfactory. The proportion of contraceptive non users who have no desire of adopting any contraceptive method in future is still unacceptably high. Policy makers should improve on their strategies while empowering the health personnel and working in collaboration with the education ministries.