Viewpoint of Men Participating in a Family Planning Educational Program Regarding its Necessity and Quality: A Step towards Involvement of Men in Reproductive Health Programs

Men’s involvement in reproductive health programs is one of the most important principles in reproductive health and the important goals of reproductive health will not be achieved without their involvement. This study aimed to evaluate the viewpoints of men participating in a family planning educational program in this regard.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 104 men referring to Fayaz Bakhsh health center, Gonabad, Iran to participate in premarital counseling. The subjects were selected through convenience sampling. They were required to complete a questionnaire evaluating their viewpoints about family planning and the training session. Then, the data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software, version 19.
Most of the participants (46.6%) referred to necessity of family planning programs and 65.5% of them believed that they had much information about family planning. The sources of information about family planning were books and CDs in 53% of the samples. Moreover, 48.1% of the participants mentioned the high quality of the training session and 69% of them reported that this session was highly effective in increasing their information about family planning. Furthermore, 59% of the subjects believed that this session would improve their relationships with their spouses and 64%of them indicated that the contents of this session were moderately applicable for beginning of marital life.
According to the findings, the majority of the men declared the effectiveness of this session in increasing their information about family planning as well as their need for more sessions and privet counseling. Thus, health centers are recommended to increase the number of training sessions and also prepare a suitable place for privet family planning counseling.