Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2008
Abstract
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) was prompted to explore ways of increasing interest in the IUD through increasing awareness of this and other long-acting and permanent methods via interpersonal channels and by intensifying campaigns to dispel rumors about the method. The Health Research Unit of the GHS, EngenderHealth’s Quality Health Partners project, and the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) project collaborated with the GHS to test innovative approaches to increase awareness of the IUD and to improve access to the method. The study examined the general and method-specific knowledge of long-acting family planning methods among clients and providers, as well as the level of contraceptive use by method in the intervention and comparison communities. In general, community health officers (CHOs) exhibited adequate knowledge of and a positive attitude toward the IUD. The report concludes that increases in the numbers of new IUD and implant users recorded by CHOs who undertook insertions at the community level, together with the much lower cost for this model, suggest that training CHOs to educate communities about long-acting methods and enabling them to provide them at the community level should be considered.
Recommended Citation
Osei, Ivy, Gertrude Voetagbe, Moses Aikins, John Gyapong, Philomena Nyarko, Harriet Birungi, Gloria Quansah Asare, Henrietta Odoi-Agyarko, and Olivia Aglah. 2008. "Comparing the effectiveness and costs of alternative strategies for improving access to information and services for the IUD in Ghana," FRONTIERS Final Report. Washington, DC: Population Council.
DOI
10.31899/rh4.1143
Language
English
Project
Frontiers in Reproductive Health
Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, International Public Health Commons, Women's Health Commons