Impact of husbands social gender consciousness on wives reproductive health in rural areas

Objective To investigate the effect of husbands' social gender consciousness on their wives' reproductive health in rural areas of China.Methods Totally 2 073 married men in Xinjiang, Shanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai province were selected with multi-stage stratified randomization method in 2010.Data about the men's base characteristics and social gender consciousness and their wives' reproductive health status were collected though a self-designed questionnaire survey face-to-face.Results There were 24.6%, 46.3%, and 29.1% of the men demonstrating weak, moderate, and strong convictions about social gender consciousness, respectively.There were 21.6%, 3.3%, 30.7%, 36.2%, 50.5%, and 67.9% of the wives reported suffering from gynecological diseases, suffering from 3 kinds of gynecological diseases or more, receiving antenatal care for 5 visits or more, receiving antenatal care in the first trimester, fortifiing nutrition during their pregnancy, and giving birth to their children in the hospital.Living area, annual family income, level of education, and age were related with husbands' gender consciousness, which were related to their wives' 6 reproductive health indicators(P<0.01 for all).Conclusion Married men in rural areas of China have weak convictions about social gender consciousness which obviously influence their wives' reproductive health status.