Abstract
Background: Correct use of modern contraceptives remains the most effective method of reducing unmet need and avoiding unplanned pregnancies and their consequences. Objective: To determine the contraceptive prevalence, prevalence of unmet need for family planning and its correlates among 15 – 49-year-old ever married women in the district of Kalutara, Sri Lanka. Method: A community based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of family planning and unmet need for family planning among 1200 ever married females in 15-49 age group, selected by cluster sampling technique. Correlates of unmet need were assessed by case control analysis which included bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Overall contraceptive prevalence was 69.4% (95%CI: 66.1-72.7) with a prevalence of 60.5% (95%CI: 51.9-69.1) for modern methods and 8.9% (95%CI: 3.3-14.5) for natural & traditional methods. Prevalence of unmet need was 9.4 % (95%CI: 7.7-11.1) with 1.5 % (95%CI: 0.79-2.2) for spacing and 7.9% (95%CI: 6.3-9.5) for limiting. Unmet need for modern methods was 18.7% (95%CI: 16.1 - 20.6). High risk of unmet need was found to be associated significantly with age above 35 years, education below grade 05, unemployment, less frequent sex, not willing to use modern methods in future and lack of counseling services. Conclusions: Although contraceptive prevalence is high in Kalutara district, existence of high prevalence of unmet need and the risk associated with poorly educated, unemployed women in older age groups indicates the need of a specific programme to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Highlights
Conclusions: contraceptive prevalence is high in Kalutara district, existence of high prevalence of unmet need and the risk associated with poorly educated, unemployed women in older age groups indicates the need of a specific programme to prevent unwanted pregnancies
Unmet Need for Family Planning (FP) refers to the percentage of all fecund women who are married or living in union and are presumed to be sexually active but not using any method of contraception, who either do not want to have any more children or want to postpone their birth at least for two years or do not know when or if they want another child[1].Unmet need for modern methods of FP includes all in the unmet need group and those who are using natural and traditional methods at the time of survey[2]
Unmet need for modern methods was 18.3%
Summary
Unmet Need for Family Planning (FP) refers to the percentage of all fecund women who are married or living in union and are presumed to be sexually active but not using any method of contraception, who either do not want to have any more children or want to postpone their birth at least for two years or do not know when or if they want another child[1].Unmet need for modern methods of FP includes all in the unmet need group and those who are using natural and traditional methods at the time of survey[2]. Unmet need for FP describes the discrepancy between need and practice of contraception among women in reproductive age. Use of appropriate contraceptives prevents unplanned pregnancies, reducing the need for induced abortion. Unsafe abortion has become the number one killer of reproductive aged women in developing countries. According to Demographc Heath Survey (DHS) 2006/7, 17.2% of births among participants in the previous 5 years were unexpected[6]. This would be an underestimate because already born children are less likely to be stated as unwanted. Correct use of modern contraceptives remains the most effective method of reducing unmet need and avoiding unplanned pregnancies and their consequences
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