TITLE:
Knowledge-Gap among Doctors in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria about Sexual and Reproductive Health
AUTHORS:
Emmanuel Columba Inyang-Etoh, Anyiekere Morgan Ekanem, Anietimfon Sunday Akpan
KEYWORDS:
Sexual, Reproductive Health, Knowledge, Medical Doctors, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.12,
December
24,
2015
ABSTRACT: Objective: Sexual and reproductive health the way it is currently
conceptualized is a new discipline in medicine, and many medical doctors whose
responsibility is to provide information and service to promote this essential
component of health do not fully understand the concept. This study was
designed to determine the level of knowledge of Nigerian doctors about sexual
and reproductive health. Methods: Partly pre-coded questionnaires were
administered to a cross section study of doctors for self-completion to test
their knowledge about sexual and reproductive health. Results: One hundred and
ninety-eight doctors with a mean age of 33.7 years old and a mean duration of
practice of 6.9 years were surveyed. Nearly all (99.5%) of the respondents had
heard of the term sexual and reproductive health, but only 15.7% of the
respondents were able to define sexual and reproductive health correctly.
Doctors who were working in health facilities situated in educational
institutions were more significantly able to define sexual and reproductive
health correctly than others (p = 0.001). Major sources of information on
sexual and reproductive health to respondents were journals, colleagues,
lectures and conferences. Most (96.5%) respondents knew that sexual and
reproductive health was related to the United Nation’s MDGs but 30.2% did not know that it equally related to MDGs 4 and 6.
There was no significant association between occupational profile of
respondents and their level of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health
(p > 0.05). Conclusion: There was a knowledge-gap among the doctors in the
Niger Delta region of Nigeria about sexual and reproductive health as 20.2% of
them demonstrated low level of knowledge about sexual and reproductive
and only 15.7% of them could define the concept correctly.