Involvement in family planning service utilization and associated factors among married men at Debre Tabor Town Northwest, Ethiopia, 2017

Background Men’s involvement in family planning can be either as a user of male contraceptive methods and or supportive partner of female users. It is very important to improve women’s health in particular and reproductive health in general. In some developing countries, levels of communication on this issue are low for decision-making. Communication and discussion positively affect contraceptive uptake and continued use, whereas failure to communicate limits couples’ effective and sustained contraceptive use. Unmet need for FP suggested that unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion are the main causes of maternal mortality in Ethiopia. Objective To assess men’s involvement in family planning service and associated factors among married men at Debre Tabor Town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods A community based cross-sectional study design was conducted from April to June. 2017 at Debre Tabor Town. Simple random sampling method was recruited then systematic sampling technique was used to include 382 married males. Data were collected by face to face interview using a structured questionnaire. The data were entered into epi. Info 7 and descriptive statistics were analyzed using SPSS version 21 statistical software package. Result From three hundred eighty-two participants, 373 participants with 97.6% response rate participated in the study. The age range of the participant was from20 to 65years, the mean age was 38.6 with the standard deviation of 7.8. Majority of the participants were orthodox 358(96%). One hundred twenty-four (33.2%) were greater than secondary education and from the occupation, farmers took the least rank 4 (2.4%). The magnitude of male involvement in family planning was 254(68.1%), 370 (99 .2%) of the participants had information on different family planning methods. Adjusting all other factors for the last model, educational status AOR [95%CI] = 2.39 [1.084, 5.260], source of information information AOR [95%CI] =1.88 [1.016, 3.485], men’s approval AOR [95%CI] = 0.07 [0.036, 0.134], ever used contraceptive AOR [95%CI] = 0.21[0.064, 0.705] were found to be associated with men’s involvement. Conclusion The level of male involvement was moderate, but their actual utilization is low.