Koura, M., Deghedi, B., Khairy, A., Abdel-Aal, N., Akl, O. (2000). Assessment of the Level of Community Participation in Family Planning Activities in Rural Alexandria. Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 30(4), 591-606. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2000.243811
Manal R. Koura; Bothaina S. Deghedi; Amal E. Khairy; Nermien M. Abdel-Aal; Ola A. Akl. "Assessment of the Level of Community Participation in Family Planning Activities in Rural Alexandria". Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 30, 4, 2000, 591-606. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2000.243811
Koura, M., Deghedi, B., Khairy, A., Abdel-Aal, N., Akl, O. (2000). 'Assessment of the Level of Community Participation in Family Planning Activities in Rural Alexandria', Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 30(4), pp. 591-606. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2000.243811
Koura, M., Deghedi, B., Khairy, A., Abdel-Aal, N., Akl, O. Assessment of the Level of Community Participation in Family Planning Activities in Rural Alexandria. Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 2000; 30(4): 591-606. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2000.243811
Assessment of the Level of Community Participation in Family Planning Activities in Rural Alexandria
Primary Health Care Division, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Egypt
Abstract
Background: There is increasing evidence that medical technology is less effective in improving health in rural communities than what people can do for themselves. Objective(s): The aim of the present study was to assess the level of community participation [CP] in family planning [FP] activities in rural Alexandria, as well as to measure the effectiveness of a training workshop on methods of community mobilization designed for primary health care [PHC] physicians. Methods: 1000 adult community members selected by the cluster sampling technique from the villages served by the 33 rural PHC facilities of Alexandria were included in the study. They were subjected to an interview questionnaire to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice [KAP] and their level of participation in FP activities. All 113 physicians and 126 nurses working in the rural health facilities were subjected to a self-administered KAP questionnaire about community involvement [CI]. A training workshop on methods of community mobilization [CM] was implemented on a sub-sample of 21 physicians. Its effectiveness was assessed by reapplication of the KAP pre-test immediately at the end of the workshop [post-test] and three months later [final-test]. Results: It was found that rural communities were aware of the overpopulation problem, had sufficient knowledge about the medical technology required for dealing with the problem. But most of them played a passive role of CP in FP activities, namely by adoption of a healthy life-style or utilization of health services. However, a minority participated actively by community-based distribution of contraceptives [3%] and by financial donations [1.5%]. Among the support mechanisms for CI were the appropriate local organizational structure [health committees of people local councils] and the local health workers, as both the health professionals and community members considered the rural health workers [Raedat] and the religious people true community representatives. On the other hand, the constraints facing community mobilization were mainly the centralization of the control of financial resources needed for CM and the strong professionalism of the health staff, as most PHC personnel showed fair knowledge, indifferent attitude and poor practice concerning Cl in the pre-test. Immediately after the training workshop a statistically significant increase in the mean KAP scores was detected [P<0.01]. The attitude score of the final-test was also statistically significantly higher than that of the pre-test. This indicated the long lasting positive effect of the training workshop on the attitude of physicians, especially towards the constraints facing CP and towards Cl in planning of health services.
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