Childbearing intentions, fertility awareness knowledge and contraceptive use among female university students in Cameroon

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to examine the association between fertility awareness knowledge, and contraceptive use among sexually active female university students (FUS) in Cameroon. METHODS: This study was designed as a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey that was conducted between July and August 2018. We extracted and analyzed relevant data (i.e., socio-demographic characteristics, sexual behavior, fertility-related characteristics, and contraceptive use) using a modified Poisson regression with a robust variance estimator. Prevalence Ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals were estimated, and statistical significance was set at P≤0.05. RESULTS: The median age of the sexually active FUS was 23 years (IQR = 21–25) and 99.3% indicated that they wanted to have children. Only 49.3% knew their fertile period and 62.5% of the sexually active FUS were current contraceptive users. We found a statistically significant association between fertility awareness knowledge and period abstinence (PR = 1.57;95%CI: 1.02–2.44, p = 0.049). In multivariate adjusted models, there was a statistically significant association between fertility awareness knowledge and male condom use (APR = 1.29; 95% CI:1.02–1.64, p-value = 0.032) and the withdrawal method (APR = 1.40;95% CI:1.02–1.93, p = 0.038). We found a statistically significant effect modification of “preferred timing to have children” on the association between fertility awareness knowledge and withdrawal method use. There was no association between fertility awareness knowledge and the use of oral contraceptive pills. CONCLUSION: Most of the female students intend to have children in the future, but their fertility awareness knowledge was suboptimal. There was a statistically significant relationship between fertility awareness knowledge, and the use of male condoms and the withdrawal method. The study underscores the need for FUS to be targeted with interventions to help them gain knowledge of their menstrual cycle to better plan or avoid unwanted pregnancy.