ontraceptive use and fertility rates vary substantially among developing countries. In some sub-Saharan African
countries, fewer than 10% of married women use contraception. Despite all efforts by governments to ensure
availability of the products, prevalence has remained low. We conducted a community-based study to examine
contraceptive knowledge, attitude and practice of family planning among married women in Samaru, Zaria,
Nigeria.
Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to study 200 women in Samaru community of Zaria, Nigeria.
Mean age of the respondents was 30.6 ± 1.5 years. In this study contraceptive prevalence was 12.5% and
respondents had a positive attitude towards family planning. Thirty years after Alma Ata of which one of the
components is to ensure maternal and child health (MCH) and family planning, contraceptive use in most of the
communities in Northern Nigeria is low. There is urgent need to step-up public awareness campaigns on family
planning to ensure wide spread acceptability and utilization among women within reproductive age group.