Assessing Male Partners’ Attitudes, Perceived Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavior Control towards their Involvement in Antenatal Care Clinic with their Pregnant Women in Dodoma Urban Municipal

Abstract

Tienyi Mnyoro Daniel and Kaiza Benson Mkahala

Background: According to WHO, 2018 Male partners needs to know and be aware of number of antenatal visits that their pregnant woman should have, also they must know investigations and screenings in which a pregnant women must undergo such as Urinalysis, HIV/AIDS screening to both male and female. Male partners' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control toward their involvement in ANC clinics with female partners can influence male involvement.

Objective: The main goal of this study was to assess male partners’ attitudes, perceived subjective norms and perceived behavior control towards their involvement in ANC clinic with their pregnant women at Dodoma urban municipal.

Methodology: This was a quantitative hospital-based analytical cross-sectional study, with a sample size of 377 conducted at Makole Health Centre in Dodoma for a maximum period of two weeks on June 2022. Simple random sampling was employed in choosing a sample to represent the study population. Data was collected using both self and interviewer- administered questionnaires. On data analysis was by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 to generate descriptive statistical information presented in the form of tables.

Results: In attitude, (183,89.7%) of male partners have positive attitude, while the remaining (21,10.3%) have negative attitude, on perceived subjective norms, (160,78.4%) of male partners have positive perceived subjective norms, while the remaining (44,21.6%) have negative perceived subjective norms, and on perceived behavior control, (163,79.9%) of male partners have positive perceived behavior control, while the remaining (41,20.1%) have negative perceived behavior control towards their involvement in ANC visits with their pregnant women. After adjusting the confounders, only perceived behavior control had factors influencing positive perceived behavior control towards men involvement in ANC which were: - distance from nearby health facility [Less than 1km (AOR=0.440 at 95% CI = 0.201-0.965)] and religion [Christian (AOR=0.459 at 95% CI=0.220-0.957)].

Conclusion: From this study, Male partners’ attitudes, perceived subjective norms and perceived behavior control towards their involvement in ANC visits were influenced by level of education those with tertiary level (colleges and universities) have positive perceived subjective norms compared to others.

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