Husband's knowledge on partner's reproductive rights and its associated factors in central Ethiopia: a...

Women's sexual and reproductive rights are crucial for achieving gender equality and promoting women's rights. Across East Africa, there are limited studies about husbands' knowledge of their partner's reproductive rights and their associated factors. Hence, this study aimed to assess husbands' knowledge of partners' reproductive health rights and associated factors in Central Ethiopia.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 15 to April 30, 2023, using multi-stage stratified sampling. A structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was utilized to gather the data, and then SPSS version 26 was employed for analysis. Statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05.

The overall good knowledge of partners' reproductive health rights was found to be 47.8% (95% CI: 43.8, 51.8). Age of the husbands 25-35 years (AOR: 2.7; 95% CI: 1.10, 6.6), below primary educational status (AOR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.3,4.3), primary educational status (AOR: 5.98; 95% CI: 3.10, 11.4), secondary educational status (AOR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.01, 4.3), above secondary education status (AOR: 8.0; 95% CI: 4.3, 15.2), discussion with a partner (AOR: 3.2; 95% CI: 2.0, 5.2), and vehicle as a means of transport (AOR: 3.3; 95% CI: 2.2, 4.9) were statistically significant for good husbands' knowledge of partners reproductive health rights.

These findings indicate that more than half (52.2%) of the study participants had a poor understanding of their partners' reproductive rights. Therefore, counselling and education should be offered to husbands to ensure equitable access to health services and to disseminate information on reproductive rights, particularly targeting young men.