Background: Vasectomy is a simple effective and safe surgical procedure for permanent male fertility control. However, high acceptance rates of vasectomy have been reported in developed countries, while low acceptance rates have been reported in developing countries like Nigeria. Objective: This study was designed to investigate the knowledge and perception of vasectomy among male staffs of Novena University Ogume, Delta State Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 151 purposively selected male staffs of Novena University, Ogume. A semi-structured questionnaire was self-administered to obtain information on respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, level of knowledge of vasectomy, perception and attitude towards vasectomy. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test were used to analyse the data with level of significance set at 0.05.
Results: The results show that the mean age of the respondents was 36.99±11.08 years. The overall level of knowledge show that 57% of the respondents had good knowledge of vasectomy, while 58.30% demonstrated poor perception towards vasectomy and 57% exhibited poor attitude towards vasectomy. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the knowledge of the respondents and their perception and attitude towards vasectomy respectively (P<0.05).
Conclusion: In conclusion, though the respondents had knowledge of vasectomy, it did not translate into perception and attitude towards vasectomy. Therefore, health education programs that include incorporating the factors that influences acceptance of vasectomy should be addressed to improve the level of acceptance among males.
Keywords: Knowledge, Perception, Attitude, Vasectomy
