# Attitudes of female market vendors of reproductive age towards use of mobile phones and access to family planning self-care interventions in Northern Uganda: a cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

This study explores how female market vendors in northern Uganda view using mobile phones to access family planning services, finding that positive attitudes correlate with better access.

## Contribution

The study identifies key factors influencing mobile phone use for family planning self-care among underserved female market vendors in northern Uganda.

## Key findings

- Positive attitudes toward mobile phone ease of use, privacy, and skills correlate with access to family planning self-care.
- Most participants (71.7%) were aware of family planning self-care interventions, but only 54.6% used smartphones.
- Mobile phone usefulness showed an insignificant relationship with access to family planning services.

## Abstract

Mobile phones are potential digital technologies for accessing family planning self-care interventions. However, their utilization could be possible if women of reproductive age have positive attitudes towards the use of this technology for healthcare purposes. This study aimed to examine the relationship between attitudes towards the use of mobile phones and access to family planning self-care interventions among female market vendors of reproductive age in northern Uganda.

A cross-sectional survey design was used. Two hundred and five randomly selected female vendors from the Gulu city main market participated. A structured researcher-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics and standard multiple regression were performed, and the data were analysed using SPSS software version 15.

Of the 205 participants, 112 (54.6%) reported using smartphones, and 147 (71.7%) were aware of family planning self-care interventions. Participants had moderate attitudes towards access to family planning self-care interventions (mean = 3.18), positive attitudes towards ease of use (mean = 3.31) and usefulness of mobile phones (mean = 3.30), strong positive attitudes towards privacy (mean = 4.04), and skills associated with using mobile phones (mean = 4.04). Furthermore, significant positive relationships existed between ease of use (p value = 0.000), skills (p value = 0.001), privacy (p value = 0.002) and access to family planning self-care interventions. There was, however, an insignificant positive relationship between mobile phone usefulness and access to family planning self-care interventions (p value = 0.189).

Participants’ positive attitudes towards the use of mobile phones could lead to access to FP self-care interventions, although uncertainty about the usefulness of the use of mobile phones for accessing FP self-care interventions exists. It is therefore important for healthcare practitioners, health development partners and the government to encourage and integrate the use of mHealth into regular FP self-care services and promotional activities while targeting underserved communities in Uganda.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12911-024-02565-5.