Family planning rumors in Korean rural areas.

An attempt to determine the extent of family planning rumors is based on data from a survey conducted by the School of Public Health of the Seoul National University in 1973. The sample consisted of 25 communities each with about 50 eligible married women up to the age of 49. All eligible women in each community were interviewed and a total of 907 responses were analyzed. The data were tabulated in order to ascertain how many wives were exposed to rumors by number of methods and such variables as age education actual number of children ideal number of sons and exposure to mass media. Additionally the data were tabulated to determine how family planning attitude and practice was interrelated with exposure to rumors. The following are among the major findings: 1) more older women reported hearing rumors about more methods than did younger women; 2) about 1/2 the women in all age groups reported hearing rumors about 1 or 2 methods; 3) women with more educati on reported hearing rumors about more methods than less educated women; 4) the pattern for rumor exposure by ideal number of sons was fairly consistent for those with an ideal of 1 2 and 3 or more sons; 5) the more methods that the respondents heard rumors about the more favorably inclined they were toward contraceptive methods; and 6) 63% of the total sample were current or users or formerly users of family planning. The study findings reveal that with more exposure to negative rumors there is a more favorable attitude toward family planning along with a higher practice rate. As such a complex relationship exists between rumors and knowledge attitudes and practice indices an independent and well-controlled project is required to examine and explain this relation ship in more detail.