Abstract:
Background: In Ethiopia, people with disabilities face socioeconomic disadvantages and they
have a limited access to sexual and reproductive health information including family planning
service. At present, however, there is a scarcity of research on the association between disability
and family planning, and only limited data is available for disabled people in Ethiopia. Hence,
this study assessed the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of family planning and
associated factors among disabled persons in North-shewa zone, Amhara regional state, Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from June to October 2019. A total of 397
study participants were interviewed using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire. A multistage
systematic sampling technique was employed to select study participants. Data were entered into
Epi data and exported into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 for
analysis. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the data. A significant association was
declared at a p-value of less than 0.05.
Results; Forty-six percent of study participants were knowledgeable about family planning
methods. The injectable was the most known method of modern contraception (74.8%) while
withdrawal (18.1%) was the least known traditional family planning method. Fifty-five percent
of our study participants had a good attitude about family planning methods and one-fourth
(24.5%) of disabled persons currently utilized any method of family planning. Those having a
good knowledge of family planning were 1.6 times more likely to utilize family planning
methods than those having poor knowledge of family planning methods (AOR = 1.61, CI = 1.27,
16.24). Moreover, participants who completed college education were 7 times more likely to
have a good knowledge of family planning methods than uneducated participants (AOR = 7.23;
95% CI = 2.28, 22.06).
Conclusions: In this study, the knowledge, attitude, and practice of disabled people about family
planning methods were relatively low. Due attention should be given to ensure that disabled
people are well informed about family planning methods through information, education, and
communication activities.
