The Relative Significance of Sociodemographic Factors Related to Contraceptive Use and Contraception Choice Among Currently-Married Women of Reproductive Age: Evidence from Two National Family Health Surveys in India

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We tried to identify the mechanisms through which demographic changes and socio-economic inequalities affect the use and choice of contraception in currently married women of reproductive age over the last decades. METHODS: The samples were collected from two of the 2005-06 and 2015-16 National Family Health Surveys (NFHSs). Bivariate analysis was used in tandem with Pearson’s chi-squared test to analyse the relationships between socio-demographic variables and two dependent variables. The dependent variables were active use of contraceptives and contraceptive choice, defined as a parameter “Yes / No” and “Traditional / Modern” respectively. We consider a statistical model suitable for the binary response to select the selected factors’ adjusted effects, namely the binary logistic regression model in a multivariate setup. RESULTS: Nearly half of the respondents were below 35 years of age in both rounds of the survey. It has been found that contraception usage among currently married women aged 15-49 declined from 56.33% in 2005-06 to 53.54% in 2015-16. All the variables are significantly associated (p<0.001) with the contraception use and contraceptive method choice across both the surveys. Our findings reveal that the currently married women belong to a younger age (15-49), western region, illiterate, married below 18 years, and fewer than two children had the lowest contraceptive prevalence rate in 2005-06. However, a substantial increment is observed among these groups in 2015-16. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings provide evidence that contraceptive use declines with age, suggesting that older women were more hesitant than their younger counterparts to use contraceptives. Besides, there is a need to introduce some needed interventions for some categories of the women, including illiterate women, residing in urban areas, Muslim women, women in the eastern, central and northeast region, and women having married after the age of 18.