Intention to use vasectomy and associated factors among married men in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Vasectomy is one of the highly effective and non-reversible types of long-term family planning methods for men. Ethiopia has a limited number of studies on the use of vasectomy, and they are focused on men rather than married men. The current study was aimed to identify the intention to use vasectomy as a method of contraception among married men in the study setting.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 1 - April 30, 2018. A sample of 422 married men was recruited using a systematic random sampling method. We conducted face to face interviews with a structured questionnaire (i.e. closed-ended questions). Data were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and SPSS version 23 used for data analysis. The statistical association between the outcome variable (Intention to use vasectomy) and the explanatory variables were first tested with binary logistic regression. Multivariable logistic regression was used to control for confounding effect of each predictor.

Results: The study findings showed that the intention to use vasectomy as a method of family planning was reported as high (24%). About 34.8% of the respondents had good knowledge and nearly a quarter (23.2%) of them had a positive attitude toward the acceptance of vasectomy use. In multivariate analysis, age range between 30 and 39 years [AOR = 2.4, 95% CI = (1.16-4.82)], having good knowledge about vasectomy use [AOR = 6.22, 95% CI = (3.17-12.21)], and having a positive attitude toward vasectomy use [AOR = 7.81, 95% CI = (4.25-14.38)] were factors significantly associated to use vasectomy as compared to their counterparts.

Conclusion: The level of acceptance of vasectomy (24%) was high compared to the level of its use in developing countries (i.e. if acceptability translates to use). The study revealed that age, good knowledge, and a positive attitude towards the use of vasectomy were important predictors of the intention to accept vasectomy. To further promote the use of vasectomy effective communication strategies in family planning programs are needed.