Knowledge-Gap among Doctors in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria about Sexual and Reproductive Health

Objective: Sexual and reproductive health the way it is currently conceptualized is a new discipline in medicine, and many medical doctors whose responsibility is to provide information and service to promote this essential component of health do not fully understand the concept. This study was designed to determine the level of knowledge of Nigerian doctors about sexual and reproductive health. Methods: Partly pre-coded questionnaires were administered to a cross section study of doctors for self-completion to test their knowledge about sexual and reproductive health. Results: One hundred and ninety-eight doctors with a mean age of 33.7 years old and a mean duration of practice of 6.9 years were surveyed. Nearly all (99.5%) of the respondents had heard of the term sexual and reproductive health, but only 15.7% of the respondents were able to define sexual and reproductive health correctly. Doctors who were working in health facilities situated in educational institutions were more significantly able to define sexual and reproductive health correctly than others (p = 0.001). Major sources of information on sexual and reproductive health to respondents were journals, colleagues, lectures and conferences. Most (96.5%) respondents knew that sexual and reproductive health was related to the United Nation’s MDGs but 30.2% did not know that it equally related to MDGs 4 and 6. There was no significant association between occupational profile of respondents and their level of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health (p > 0.05). Conclusion: There was a knowledge-gap among the doctors in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria about sexual and reproductive health as 20.2% of them demonstrated low level of knowledge about sexual and reproductive and only 15.7% of them could define the concept correctly.