Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
This article presents some of the general findings and, in particular, the information on family planning practice in Isfahan City and Ostan compiled in two phases of the Isfahan Communications Project (ICP). In terms of information generated, the project had two main stages: (1) the ostan-wide sample presurvey (May, 1970), and (2) the ostan-wide mass media campaign (August, 1970-March, 1971). The presurvey was made to obtain demographic information and data on the knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) of family planning among the population and their exposure to the various media. The media campaign was directed at those couples who because of their media behavior and previous experiences with contraception were thought to be predisposed to adopt modern family planning methods.
Portions of this article, including most of the tables, appeared first in Studies in Family Planning (see Note 1). They are published here with the kind permission of the Population Council. The opinions expressed in the present article are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Population Council or any of its staff members.
1. The Isfahan Communications Project was an intensive family planning information and education project which was conducted under the auspices of the Population and Family Planning Division of the Iranian Ministry of Health. The project was supported with funds supplied by the United States Agency for International Development (AID). The AID funds were assigned to the Population Council on the understanding that the Council would make a sub-grant to the Iranian Ministry of Health. Only Robert Gillespie, Advisor in Communications from the Population Council, was employed full time on the project. Mr. Gillespie was responsible for the experimental design. His counterpart and collaborator was Dr. Mehdi Loghmani, Deputy Director of the Isfahan Health Department. For a treatment of the ICP in its entirety the reader is referred to Lieberman, , Gillespie, , and Loghmani, , “The Isfahan Communications Project,” Studies in Family Planning IV(4), April, 1973.Google Scholar
2. Ostan is the Iranian territorial unit that corresponds to the American state or the Canadian province. Ostans are divided into shahrestans.
3. The SIO clinical records were not available when this article was written; hence, SIO activities are not covered in what follows.
4. In pharmacies, pills cost $.75 per cycle compared to $.13 in rural clinics and $.26 in urban clinics. In 1972, a policy of free distribution was established.
5. It is likely that this high proportion includes a number of women who had (illegal) abortions.
6. Yet, urban and rural couples in other countries, for example nineteenth-century France, have used withdrawal and certain folk remedies to control their fertility. On this point, see Pouthas, C. H., La population de la France pendant la premiere moitie due XIXe siecle, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques: Travaux et Documents, Cahier No. 25, 1956Google Scholar, as well as articles by Gautier and Henry, Ganiage, and Valmary appearing in the same series.
7. V. Abedin-Zadeh, “Survey of 786 interviews carried out in family planning clinics in Khuzestan, August, 1969,” mimeographed, Ahwaz, Khuzestan, Khuzestan Health Department, 1970.