Yeshareg Walle¹, Zelalem Alamrew^2,

Background: Men often play dominant role on decisions crucial to reproductive health but still they are at the back seat. In the past family planning programs have focused primarily on women because to free them from excessive child bearing. The aim of the study was to assess the involvement of men in family planning practices among male factory workers in Bahir Dar city. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in July 2013 among 306 male factory workers using simple random sampling technique. A pre-tested interview questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analysis with SPSS version 16 soft ware package. Results: The study revealed that 25.5% of male factory workers were involved in family planning practices. The study declared that educational status was a significantly predicts involvement on family planning (AOR=1.53, 95% CI: 1.08-11.14, 1.8= 95% CI: 1.31- 9.220, and 2.01= 95% CI: 1.51-7.76). Besides, respondents who stayed in marriage from 4 to 13 years were about 18 times more likely to be involved on family planning compared to respondents stayed more than 22 years (AOR= 18.06, 95% CI: 1.79-58.68). Moreover, number of living children in a family was associated with an outcome of interest (AOR= 11.01, 95% CI: 1.13- 106.9 and AOR= 7.40, 95% CI: 1.49- 36.64) respectively. Conclusion: Only one out of four respondents involved in family planning. Besides, educational status, number of years in marriage, number of living children, and joint decision on the number of children were statistically significant predictors of male involvement on family planning. Therefore, ministry of health and all sectors concerned on reproductive health issues need to work on male involvement on family planning to regulate fertility and rapid population growth.

family planning, male factory workers, bahir dar city, northwest ethiopia