Assessment of the Knowledge of Women Regarding Prevention and Management of Complications of Cu-T Insertion and Decision Making Rural Families in Choosing Family Planning Methods in Kashmir Valley

To study the prevalence of Cu-T complications among women and their knowledge regarding prevention and management of complications of Cu-T insertion and to determine the relationship between knowledge and the selected factors (age. religion. educational qualification, occupation. type of family, income, number of children, duration of copper-t insertion) and to identify the decision makers in the family in choosing family planning methods 100 rural women attending PHC's of Kashmir were investigated in the present study. It was found that majority of women (90%) were Muslims, most of the of the study subjects (78%) were house wives, more than half (54%) were in the age group of 31-40 years, (45%) belonged to nuclear family, (40%) of women were having two children, (39%) women were in the monthly income group between Rs 10001-15000. (29%) were having 1-2 years of Cu-T insertion, (35%) women had primary education, maximum number of women with Cu- T insertion complications (12%), were having excessive vaginal discharge and minimum number of women (2%), reported nausea and vomiting and only (1%) of women's husband got hurt during sexual intercourse. Maximum subjects (70%) had inadequate knowledge regarding prevention and management of complications of Cu-T insertion. The mean of knowledge score was 20.8 (maximum score 34) and Standard deviation was found to be 6.96 depicting heterogeneity in the knowledge score of study subjects. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and educational but there was no significant relationship between knowledge and factors like age, religion, occupation, type of family, income, number of children, duration of Cu-T insertion at 0.05 levels. Regarding the decision makers in the family in choosing family planning methods, most of women, (45%) were dominated by husbands. The study findings indicate that there is lack of knowledge among women regarding prevention and management of complications of Cu- insertion and hence there is need to educate and to give information to women regarding prevention and management of complications of Cu- insertion.