Husband's knowledge on partner's reproductive rights and associated factors in Wolkite town, Central Ethiopia: A...

Women's sexual and reproductive rights are crucial for achieving gender equality and promoting women's rights. Husbands' knowledge and involvement are key in helping women practice their sexual and reproductive health 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 determine husbands' knowledge of their partners' reproductive health rights.

To assess husbands' knowledge of their partners' reproductive rights and associated factors in Gurage Zone, Central Ethiopia, 2023.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 632 husbands in Wolkite town from March to April, 2023.

Multi-stage stratified sampling, along with systematic random sampling techniques, was employed to select study participants. A structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was utilized to gather the data, and then SPSS version 26 was employed for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify variables associated with the husband's knowledge of his partner's reproductive rights using the binary logistic regression model. 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% confidence interval (CI): 43.8, 51.8). Age of the husbands 25-35 years (adjusted odds ratio (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 weak understanding of their partners' reproductive rights. So, counseling and education should be offered to husbands to enhance their knowledge of reproductive rights.