Attitudes of males to contraception in a Kenyan rural population

The results of a contraceptive attitudes survey on 355 men carried out between January and March 1987 in Machakos District of Kenya are presented. 93.2% indicated that they approved of Family Planning. Although 63.9% of the respondents felt that family size decision making should be a couple's responsibility and 78.6% of respondents preferred a husband and wife approach to family planning counselling, 56.9% said that the women should be the one to actually use the contraceptive. 88.7% approved of female sterilization while 64.5% disapproved of vasectomy. There is need to re-evaluate the current integrated maternal child health-family planning services to actively and effectively accommodate men.