Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Contraception among Refugees in a Refugee Settlement in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Introduction: Despite the benefits of family planning, contraceptive use has been found to be limited among refugees.

Aim: This study aimed at assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among refugees in order to improve their family planning and reproductive health services in Yaoundé, Cameroon where few studies on this issue have been conducted.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) with refugees invited from the refugee self- settlement Camp, Yaoundé, from 1stSeptember, 2012 to 28th February, 2013. A convenient sample of two hundred and sixty four participants was used. Information was obtained on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, practice and contraceptive needs of the refugees using a pre-tested questionnaire by face-to-face interview. Data collected was cleansed and systematically corrected for errors. It was analyzed using Epi info version 3.5.3. Frequencies were generated and Chi-square or T-test were used to explore associations between variables where appropriate with P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Two hundred and sixty four refugees participated in the study. The mean age of participants was 29.6 years (SD=10.2 years). The refugees had lived in the settlement for an average of 5.8 years (SD= 4.5 years). Two hundred and thirteen (80.7%) participants had heard of modern contraceptives, 209 (79.2%) had seen modern contraceptive methods and 213 (80.7%) believe that modern contraceptives could prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The use of condoms was the most preferred method of contraception by 161 (83.3%) of all the respondents. However, only 96 (36.4%) used condoms during their last intercourse with a male predominance (54.1% vs 23.3%) (P-value < 0.05). The main reasons given for non-condom use were: reduced pleasure and unavailability in male participants and lack of knowledge in the female group. These differences between males and females were statistically significant (All P-values <0.05).

Conclusion: Although the study showed high level of awareness about family planning methods, the use of method contraceptive methods was low. There is need to increase community awareness about family planning through health education, and strengthen family planning services for refugees. The availability of trained personnel in providing family planning services is critical to expanding both awareness of/and access to family planning.