Bridging Family Planning Information Gaps to Improve Reproductive Health Knowledge among Women Living with HIV in Mbagala Peri-Urban Ward, Tanzania
Bridging Family Planning Information Gaps
Keywords:
Family Planning, Family Planning Information Needs, Sources of Family Planning Information, Healthcare, Women Living with HIV., Reproductive HealthAbstract
This paper presents the findings of a study that assessed the family planning information needs of women living with HIV (WLWHIV) in Peri-urban settings. The study focused on WLWHIV attending the Mbagala Rangitatu Hospital Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Clinic in the Temeke district of the Dar es Salaam region in Tanzania. Specifically, the paper examines the family planning information needs of WLWHIV, evaluates women’s awareness of FPI and services, and determines the sources WLWHIV use to access such FPI. Employing a case study design, the study targeted 30 WLWHIV receiving services at Mbagala Rangitatu Hospital to capture their opinions and experiences regarding family planning information and services, using in-depth interviews with both WLWHIV and hospital healthcare workers. This data collection method was coupled with non-participant observation to study social interactions between WLWHIV and healthcare workers. The study found that WLWHIV have moderate awareness of FPI and services. Despite the availability of various information sources, most respondents relied on interpersonal communication with healthcare providers, friends, and close relatives, as well as on fliers and leaflets. In contrast, WLWHIV rarely used radio programmes and television as sources of family planning information. Implicitly, WLWHIV possess insufficient knowledge to make informed decisions on family planning because of a lack of awareness of basic family planning information tailored to their specific needs, a limited understanding of their family planning information requirements, and inadequate access to effective channels for disseminating information. As such, healthcare providers should establish integrated awareness creation training programmes to empower WLWHIV with knowledge of FP. Moreover, based on the findings, policymakers should consider integrating WLWHIV into the development of comprehensive community participatory plans to determine their information needs and user-friendly information dissemination sources.
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