Assessing the effectiveness of a sexual and reproductive health and rights training programme in changing healthcare practitioners’ attitudes and practices in low-income countries

ABSTRACT

Introduction

In low-income countries the utilisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services is influenced by healthcare practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes and practices. Despite awareness of the potential problems due to ingrained biases and prejudices, few approaches have been effective in changing practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning SRHR in low-income countries.

Objectives

1) To assess whether participating in an SRHR international training programme (ITP) changed healthcare practitioners’ SRHR knowledge, SRHR attitudes and SRHR practices and 2) examine associations between trainees’ characteristics, their SRHR work environment and transfer of training.

Methods

A pre- and post-intervention study, involving 107 trainees from ten low-income countries, was conducted between 2017 and 2018. Paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test were used to assess differences between trainees’ pre- and post-training scores in self-rated SRHR knowledge, attitudes, knowledge seeking behaviour and practices. Linear regression models were used to examine association between trainees’ baseline characteristics and post-training attitudes and practices.

Results

Trainees’ self-rated scores for SRHR knowledge, attitudes and practices showed statistically significant improvement. Baseline high SRHR knowledge was positively associated with improvements in attitudes but not practices. High increases in scores on knowledge seeking behaviour were associated with higher practice scores. No statistically significant associations were found between scores that measured changes in SRHR knowledge, attitudes and practices.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that the ITP was effective in improving trainees’ self-rated scores for SRHR knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (practices). The strongest association was found between improvement in SRHR knowledge seeking behaviour and the improvement in SRHR practices. This suggests that behaviour intention may have a central role in promoting fair open-minded SRHR practices among healthcare practitioners in low-income countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare practitioners
• SRHR attitudes
• SRHR behaviours
• SRHR knowledge seeking behaviour
• SRHR knowledge

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams

Author contributions

GT: Developed the study design, conducted the analysis and interpreted the study findings, and wrote the manuscript.

PÖ: Contributed to the study design, analysis, and interpretation of study findings and provided critical feedback during the writing and revision of the manuscript.

CG: Contributed to the study design, analysis, and interpretation of study findings and provided critical feedback during the writing and revision of the manuscript.

AA: Contributed to the study design, analysis, interpretation of study findings and provided critical feedback during the writing and revision of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics and consent

The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Lund, Sweden (DNR 2017/823).

Paper context

In low-income countries, healthcare practitioners’ biases and preconceptions can negatively impact access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. This study showed that an international training programme for SRHR practitioners improved their knowledge-seeking behaviour and practices. Behavioural intentions may play a central role in promoting fair, open-minded, non-biased delivery of SRHR services in low-income countries.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2023.2230814.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.