Background: Husbands play an influential role in women's access to health care, such as family planning services. However, there is little evidence of the level of husbands' involvement in family planning services among pastoralist communities, who possess a distinct lifestyle. This study was aimed to assess husbands' involvement in family planning use and factors associated in pastoralist communities of Afar, Ethiopia.
Methods: Community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among randomly selected 418 married women in Afambo district, Afar pastoralist community in 2017. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered to EPI-Info version 7 statistical software programs and exported to SPSS. Descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied to identify factors associated with husband involvement. Odds ratio at 95% confidence interval were reported and significant association of factors was declared at the p-value of less than 0.05.
Result: Four hundred eighteen married women were included in the study, making a response rate of 98%. The magnitude of husbands' involvement in family planning was found to be 42.2%. Women who ever used family planning (AOR: 7.21; 95%CI: 3.58-14.67), those who participated in community networks, those who reported health center as their source of information for family planning (AOR: 5.56; 95%CI: 1.92-16. o7) were higher likely to report husband involvement compare to their counterparts. Participants' increased knowledge was also significantly associated with higher odds of husband involvement in family knowledge (AOR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.16-1.58). .
Conclusion: Husbands' involvement in the district is low. Women's engagement in community networks aimed at increasing the knowledge of the women may involve in family planning. In addition, due focus among health care providers in lower health care units to provide information for both women and men might have a promising power to improve husbands involvement.
Keywords: Afambo district; Afar; Contraceptive; Family planning; Husbands’ involvement; Pastoralist community.