Abstract:
Background: Reproductive rights violations are a major public health concern, and the burden is
twofold in developing nations. Understanding levels of husbands‘knowledge and involvement in
their partners‘ reproductive rights is necessary for developing effective intervention programs.
Although some research on women's reproductive rights have been documented so far, the
majority of those studies are done in higher education and are focused on a single component.
Objective: To assess knowledge and involvement of husbands in their partners‘ reproductive
rights and associated factors among currently married men in Liban Jawi district West Shoa
Central Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design supplemented with a qualitative
method was employed from 11/9/2022 to11/10/2022 among 411 husbands for quantitative study
and 8 key informants for qualitative. Multistage sampling techniques for quantitative and
purposive sampling technique for qualitative study were employed. Interviewer-administered
data collection techniques were used to collect the data. Epi data version 3.1 and SPSS version
20 were used for quantitative data entry and analysis respectively.
Result: In this study, 49.1 %( 95% CI: 44%, 54%) and 36.5 %( 95% CI: 32%, 41%) of husbands
have good knowledge and good involvement in their partners reproductive rights. Love marriage
type(AOR:2.2;95% CI:1.32,3.51),≥5066 average monthly income (AOR:2.09; 95%
CL:1.25,3.49), couples discussion on reproductive health topics(AOR:8.47; 95%:5.01,14.30) and
taking<30 minutes to reach the nearest health institution(AOR:2.01: 95%CI:1.25,3.23) were
factors associated with husbands‘knowledge.Whereas sources of reproductive health
information: Television(AOR:3.75;95% CI:1.61,8.73) and more than one sources of information
reproductive health (AOR:2.79;95%CI:1.46,5.34), Couples discussion on reproductive health
(AOR:5.09;95%CI:2.64,9.80) good husbands‘ knowledge about reproductive rights(AOR:2.90;
95% CI:1.69,4.94) and favorable husbands‘ attitude toward women‘s reproductive rights (AOR
:2.13;95% CI:1.30,3.50) were factors associated with husbands‘ involvement. Lacks of
knowledge, negative attitudes, and cultural issues are barriers for low husbands‘ involvement.
Conclusion and recommendation: The overall husbands‘ knowledge and involvement in their
partners‘ reproductive rights were low.Health education and promoting media utilization are
important to improve husbands‘ knowledge and involvement level.
