Wealth Status, Age, Exposure to the Internet, and Women’s ability to Discuss Family Planning with a Health Worker in Ghana (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Family planning services are designed to help couples to plan the size of the family they desire. However, around the world, traditional beliefs and attitudes have created stigma around family planning. OBJECTIVE Due to this, the study aimed to investigate the extent to which wealth status, age, and exposure to the internet influence women to discuss family planning with a health worker in Ghana. METHODS Data for the study were extracted from the 2022 GDHS. SPSS version 27 was used to processed the data and were analyzed with frequency distribution, chi-square test, and binary logistic regression. The binary logistic regression was used to ascertain the predictors of women’s ability to discuss family planning with a health worker in Ghana from the explanatory variables. RESULTS The study found that both wealth status and exposure to the internet were positively correlated with women’s ability to discuss family planning with a health worker in Ghana. CONCLUSIONS Despite the observed significance, the overall prevalence of family planning discussions remains low, with only 14.3% of women reporting such interactions. This underscores the need for targeted interventions that address socioeconomic disparities and digital access to enhance reproductive health communication in Ghana