Organisations involved
Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI)
Summary
The medicalisation and clinic-based distribution of contraceptive methods have been criticised as barriers to increasing levels of contraceptive use in Nigeria and other settings; however, our understanding of how clients themselves perceive the contraceptive method decision-making process is very limited. Focus group discussions among men and women in Ibadan and Kaduna, Nigeria, were used to examine attitudes and norms surrounding contraceptive method decision-making in 2010. Based on the findings, provider and client education approaches to help improve client involvement in contraceptive decision-making and method choice are needed.
Social norms of interest
Medicalisation of contraception.
Behaviours of interest
Contraceptive use.
Project components
This study is part of a larger qualitative study that was designed to understand key factors influencing the demand for family planning in two urban areas of Nigeria. For this sub-study, focus group discussions were used to obtain information on contraceptive method decision-making, utilising projective techniques, which provided an indirect approach to gain information about underlying norms that can be overlooked or otherwise influenced by direct questioning or facilitator bias.
Key findings to date
Choosing a family planning method was presented as a medical decision, meaning it was best done by a doctor who conducts clinical tests on the client to determine the best, side effect-free, contraceptive method for each client. An absolute trust in health professionals, hospitals, and governments to provide safe contraception was evident. The level of medicalisation placed on contraceptive method choice by urban Nigerians is problematic, especially since a test that can determine what contraceptive methods will cause side effects in an individual does not exist, and side effects often do occur with contraceptive method use.
Attribution statement
H.M. Schwandt, J. Skinner, A. Saad, L. Cobb, “Doctors are in the best position to know . . . ”: The perceived medicalisation of contraceptive method choice in Ibadan and Kaduna, Nigeria, Patient Educ Couns (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2016.03.026
