Education and contraceptive knowledge in rural areas of four Latin American nations

Abstract

It is hypothesized that the level of education in a community is a major determinant of womens knowledge of contraceptive methods. Community in this context is defined as including both local and national environments. To test this hypothesis a study was carried out in rural and small urban areas of 4 Latin American countries: Colombia Costa Rica Mexico and Peru. Data was obtained from representative samples of 2100 to 3000 women between the ages of 15 and 49 who were either married or consensually mated at the time of interview. The data was analyzed according to an information flow model in which a womans level of education her husbands education and the community level of education were considered as independent variables. Newspaper reading was included as a variable mediating between education and knowledge of contraceptives. It was found that all of the variables predict knowledge of contraceptives but that the single best predictor is a womans own level of education. Therefore as long as the general level of education in any community remains low knowledge of contraceptives will be limited to the minority of relatively well educated women. In order for information about contraceptives to reach uneducated women a rather high general level of community education is a prerequisite.