Awareness and Attitude of Family Planning among Rural Women of Nsukka Local Government Area: Implications for Social Work Intervention

Abstract

Nigeria’s population increase has become a great concern to demographers, economic planners and even the government agents as a result of people’s apathy in family planning. Many of the rural population are not knowledgeable about the benefits of family planning and as such, they feel that the programs are not for them, and therefore, do not participate. Against this backdrop of the above situation, the study examined the awareness and attitude of family planning among rural women of Nsukka Local Government Area. Data were gathered from 240 respondents who were randomly selected from Nsukka rural communities. Results showed that younger women (55.2%) were more knowledgeable about family planning than the older women (44.8%). It was also found that religion played an active role in the adoption of family planning practices in Nsukka area of Enugu State. In view of this, it is strongly recommended that education should be employed to improve people’s knowledge on sexuality and to curtail the ugly trends in family planning practices in Nigeria.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1404