Operational research for an effective information and training approach for surgical contraception knowledge and attitude in Turkey.

Although 70% of all currently married women in Turkey state that they do not want to have any more children, only 34.5% use modern contraceptive methods and 28.1% use traditional methods such as withdrawal. Women in Turkey have 17 induced abortions for every 100 pregnancies. Voluntary surgical contraception (VSC) was legalized in 1983, but it was inadequately and poorly presented to the public as a viable contraceptive option. VSC is therefore less well-known than other contraceptive methods. The 1993 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey and the 1988 Turkish Population and Health Survey found that only 1.3% of couples in Turkey used tubal ligation and/or vasectomy in 1983, 1.8% in 1988, and 2.9% in 1993. A study was conducted in the Etimesgut and Golbasi districts of Ankara, rural and semi-rural areas which consist of 27 villages, to identify the most effective information and education approach to increase knowledge and change attitudes toward surgical contraception. 850 of the 1176 couples included in the intervention study were accessible for the follow-up study. The following approaches were applied to three intervention groups: wives were informed by a midwife, husbands were informed by a male health officer, and both were informed concurrently by the respective trainers. Increase in knowledge scores on surgical contraception was higher in groups in which women were trained directly. However, although the scores of knowledge increased, the training intervention caused no significant change in attitude.