Knowledge about contraceptive use remains poor among tribal women in Kerala’s Wayanad district, according to a study.
About 2,500 women in the reproductive age group of 15-49 years were part of the survey carried out by a team of experts from Amrita Hospital here. They mainly belonged to Paniya, Kurichiyar, Adiya, and Kattunaicken communities. The contraceptive use was only 26.4% compared to the State average of 53%. Knowledge about contraceptive use was poor among more than half of the women (53%), as per the study published in the BMJ Open Journal on April 12.
The knowledge of emergency contraceptive use was also found to be very poor and this was closely related to poor knowledge of contraceptives in general. Those who desired more than two children had lower knowledge of contraceptives, said Aswathy S., professor, department of community medicine, Amrita Hospital, in a release.
“Initially, only about 41.2% (1,027/2,495) reported having heard of contraceptives, and on further probing this increased to 50.3% (1,256/2,495). Only more than a third (36.7%) had above-average knowledge of contraceptives. Less than a fifth, 433 (17.4%) reported having heard of oral contraceptives,” she said.
