Objective: To determine unmet need for family planning among doctors and nurses in UKMMC.
Method: A prospective cross sectional survey was conducted to investigate unmet need for family planning among female doctors and female nurses in UKMMC between 1st January and 31st January 2015. Questionnaire was created in English language using Modified DHS model questionnaire as available in DHS Analytical Studies 2012. There were two versions of the questionnaire, the printed copy and the online survey using the server SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UNMETneedCONTRA). The first part of the questionnaire covered socio-economic and demographic data while the second part contained information on family planning. Both groups were compared in terms of unmet need, total demand for family planning and the reason for not practicing contraception.
Results: A total of 110 female doctors and 530 female nurses were enrolled in this study. The mean age was 35 years old in doctors’ group and 34 years old in the nurses’ group. Higher current users of contraception among the nurses compared to doctors, which is 28.8% and 16.8% respectively. Among the doctors, higher proportion was observed for unmet need for spacing in comparison with that for limiting (12.7% vs 4.2%). These findings were found to be similar in the nurses’ group, with 16.8% have unmet need for spacing while 7.2% have unmet need for limiting. Using Westoff Model the total unmet need was estimated 19% for the doctors and 24.9% in the nurses. Total demands for family planning among doctors were much lower compared to the nurses (35.8% vs 53.7%). 26.7% in the doctors’ group gave fertility related reasons as the highest reason for not using contraception while 21% of nurses gave opposition to use. Lack of knowledge was given by 3% in the nurses group.
Conclusion: Unmet need for family planning among female doctors was lower than female nurses, but comparable to the national value of 17%. The result of this study necessitates the need for health management to take into account the concept of reproductive health education.