Knowledge, Attitude ‎and ‎Practice ‎Towards Reproductive Health among Females Attending Rural Family Medicine Unit in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt

Background: Reproductive health is fundamental to people’s health and survival, economic development and the wellbeing of humanity. Absence of knowledge regarding reproductive health means that ‎women can’t make informed and correct ‎choices, with the consequence that they are likely to suffer from sexually ‎transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. Our study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of females attending Meet Hebish Elbaharia Family Medicine Unit in Egypt regarding reproductive health.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Meet Hebish Elbaharia Family Medicine Unit. A pre-designed questionnaire sheet was developed and validated to collect data about socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice of females attending for promotive, preventive and curative health services towards reproductive health.

Results: There were significant relationships between studied females’ socio demographic characteristics and their knowledge, attitude and practice towards reproductive health. The majority of the studied females had a poor level of knowledge about reproductive health. The internet was the main source of information about reproductive health among the studied females. The majority of studied females didn't have pre-marital examination with the commonest used family planning method by females was ‎“IUD” followed by contraceptive pills. Stepwise linear regression detected that total score of socio demographic characteristics of females were the significant predictors for imperfect practice of the studied females towards reproductive health.

Conclusion: Knowledge among females about reproductive health was relatively low and the majority of females had a neutral attitude toward reproductive health. Imperfect practice was high among old aged, illiterates and housewives. There were significant relationships between demographic characteries of females and their knowledge, attitude and practice towards reproductive health. In addition, there were significant relationships between knowledge and attitude of females towards reproductive health from one side and their practice from the other side.