Knowledge, attitude, and practice among Saudi primary health care attendees about family planning in Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of contraception are influenced by a host of interdependent demographic, cultural, economic, and social factors, therefore, KAP vary not only in different countries but also from region to region in a country. A cross-sectional study was carried out among Saudi primary health care attendees at Abha city, Saudi Arabia, with the aim to help in developing strategies that may enhance family planning in Abha. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was designed by the researcher to obtain the necessary information from all reproductive age group patients who attended primary health care centers in Abha for a period of 1 month (July to August 2017). Statistical analysis was done using two-tailed tests and alpha error of 0.05. P value less than or equal to 0.05 was considered to be significant. RESULTS: The study included 314 participants, with age ranging from 18 to 55 years. Among them, 70.4% were female, and 56.1% of the sample were university graduates. Approximately 80.6% of the participants knew about family planning, and 68.1% correctly defined family planning. Hormonal pills were recognized by 53.2% of the participants followed with intrauterine devices. Family members were the most common source of information (51.8%), followed by internet reading (37.5%) and healthcare workers (21.8%). The attitude of the studied group varied. Most of them only wanted to use family planning in agreement with their spouses, and 11.8% had negative attitude due to their fear of side-effects. Currently, 29.6% of the participants were using family planning methods whereas 53.5% had used contraception in the past. Oral contraception was the most commonly used method (49.5%), followed by surgical methods (30.1%) and natural methods (16.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The present study reveals that a significantly higher proportion of respondents know about contraception and more than half had good knowledge about contraception. However, the current practice of contraception methods is lower than many regions in the country. The selection of oral contraception as the method of choice is similar to other studies.