KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE

STIs, HIV, AIDS, RTIS, BREAST CANCER & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AMONG YOUNG FEMALES IN FAISALABAD DISTRICT, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Reproductive health is concerned with the people’s ability to have a satisfying
and safe sex life ensuring their capability to reproduce with a liberty of making a decision that if,
when and how often they have to do so. In Pakistan, culturally females are married at a young
age; become mothers and are at risk of health complications i.e. HIV/ STD and STI. There is
less utilization of reproductive health services throughout Pakistan that ultimately affects health
status of people at very young age. Most of the communities are not aware of reproductive
health services, thus not availing these facilities. Objective: So the present study was designed
to examine the females perceptions, attitude and practices about reproductive health services
as well as to determine the level of their empowerment to take decisions and make choices
regarding their own reproductive health besides determining the level of the quality, availability
and accessibility of reproductive health services and to suggest some measures for policy
makers to improve the reproductive health state of young mothers in district Faisalabad. Study
Design: A sample of 600 young married females of age 15-32 years was selected through
multistage sampling technique. Period: 2009. Setting: Rural and urban area of District
Faisalabad. Material and Method: Uni-variate (frequency distribution and percentage) and Bivariate
analysis (Chi square and Gamma Statistics) was carried out. Results: Most (44.0%) of
the respondents belonged to age category of 26-30 years; 35.5% were married for 18 years;
39.3% had been married for 5 years; 71.8% had primary and above level of education. Majority
(65.9%) had up to Rs.10,000 per month income, 49.2% possessed 6-10 family members,
73.5% had at least 2 and above live children. Majority had the knowledge of reproductive health
(67.7%) and HIV/AIDs (54.7%) whereas most of females had no knowledge of STIs (69.8%),
RTIs (52.3%) and its development (51.8%). Most of the females experienced headache (62.8%),
swelling of different body parts (61%) and back pain (62.7%) during their reproductive life. Bivariate
analysis showed highly significant relation among age at marriage, number of children,
cultural hindrance and age of respondents vs. their reproductive health. Conclusion: Although
most of the females were young & educated mothers with good reproductive health experience
but still lacking in knowledge about STIs, HIV/AIDS, RTIs and breast cancer that is because of
cultural hindrance, early age marriage pattern and male dominancy which indicates that we
need to pay more attention towards female education and empowerment and decision making
authority status at domestic level through community mobilization with the help of NGOs,
Religious scholars and existing health system/ Health personnel’s .i.e. doctors/ nurses /LHV/
FHW.