Comparing the Viewpoints of Managers, Employees and Clients Regarding the Cultural - religious Barriers to Family Planning Counseling

Appropriate family planning counseling for informed choice, and the right and responsible use of contraceptive methods is very important. Cultural -religious barriers can have an effect on family planning counseling. The aim of study was comparing managers’, staff’ and clients’ viewpoints about cultural - religious barriers in family planning counseling in health care centers of Isfahan in 2012. This is a cross-sectional one-step three-group comparative descriptive study conducted on 295 subjects including 59 managers, 110 staff and 126 clients in health care centers of Isfahan in 2012. The Managers and staff were selected by census and the clients were recruited through simple random sampling. The data collection tool was a researcher made questionnaire including two sections of fertility and personal characteristics, and measurement of viewpoints. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical tests (one-way ANOVA) using SPSS-PC (v.19). The findings showed a significant difference between mean scores of viewpoints in three groups of managers, staff and clients concerning cultural -religious barriers of family planning counseling (p<0.001). The results pointed to a difference among the viewpoints of the three groups, as though the clients considered cultural -religious barriers less prominent and less effective compared to other groups. Therefore, it is necessary to launch group discussion sessions with attendance of the three groups with the aim of investigation of problems which would have affected the performance of the participants in the field of planning and running correct family planning counseling.