1. Mass media influences on family planning knowledge, attitudes and method choice among sexually active men in sub-Saharan Africa
- Author
-
Massy Mutumba
- Subjects
Male ,Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ,Economics ,Science ,Decision Making ,Economics of Training and Education ,Social Sciences ,Sex Education ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Cohort Studies ,Geographical Locations ,Families ,Cognition ,Sociology ,Psychological Attitudes ,Psychology ,Humans ,Mass Media ,Human Families ,Children ,Contraception Behavior ,Africa South of the Sahara ,Human Capital ,Cultural Characteristics ,Multidisciplinary ,Marital Status ,Cognitive Psychology ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Health Surveys ,Communications ,Contraception ,Age Groups ,Research Design ,Family Planning Services ,People and Places ,Africa ,Cognitive Science ,Educational Status ,Medicine ,Population Groupings ,Research Article ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Men are underrepresented in family planning (FP) research, and despite the widespread promotion of FP through mass media, there is no systematic evaluation on how mass media exposure influences their FP knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 31 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), collected between 2010 and 2019, this paper examines the associations between three types of traditional mass media (radio, television and print) with FP knowledge, attitudes and method choices among reproductive age men in SSA, relative to other socio-cultural factors. Estimates to quantify the relative contribution of each type of mass media, relative to other evidence-based socio-cultural influences on FP outcomes, were derived using the Shorrocks-Shapley decomposition. Radio exposure had the largest impact on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice, accounting for 26.1% of the variance in FP knowledge, followed by Television (21.4%) and education attainment (20.7%). Mass media exposure had relatively minimal impact on FP method choice, and between the three types of mass media, television (8%) had the largest influence on FP method choice. Print media had comparatively lesser impact on FP knowledge (8%), attitudes (6.2%) and method choice (3.2%). Findings suggest that mass media exposure has positive influences on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice but its influence on FP knowledge, attitudes and method choice is smaller relative to other socio-cultural factors such as education, household wealth and marital status. As such, efforts to increase FP uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa should take into consideration the impact of these socio-cultural economic factors.
- Published
- 2022