Abstract
Present study focuses on knowledge and practices of family planning methods in Hail Region. This study is a cross-sectional study conducted in Hail province and its villages. Married men and women were the study subjects. A detailed questionnaire is prepared containing demographic profiles and questions related to knowledge about family planning (FP) methods. A multistage sampling is used for the selection of subjects. Firstly, a list of villages were made and selected randomly. After the selection of villages, subjects were selected starting from a pin-point made in the village till the final subject selected from the village. More than one third of the subjects were <= 25 and 26-35 years each constituted 36.3%. Most of the subjects were females (55.6%). Overall, the knowledge about family planning methods was among 95.2% (95%CI=89.8-97.7%) of the subjects. The knowledge about family planning methods was higher among female subjects (97.1%) than males (92.7%), however, the association was statistically insignificant (p>0.05). Drug use was in majority of subjects as the method of family planning (70.3%). About half of the subjects got knowledge about FP methods from doctors (51.7%) and one third got from family et friends (30.5%). The study showed almost universal knowledge about family planning methods with higher knowledge among women. The family planning and birth spacing interventions need to focus on alleviating fears about side-effects among men and women through effective counseling and providing adequate information to both men and women about method-related side-effects and how to manage them. In addition, involving community leaders, religious clerics, and health workers in awareness raising campaigns can help address sociocultural and religious concerns.