Abstract
BackgroundNFHS-4 stated high unmet need for family planning (FP) among married women in Uttar Pradesh. Unmet need is highest among age groups: 15–19 and 20–24 years. Currently few data is available about unmet need for FP among vulnerable section of the community, i.e.15–24 year’s age group living in the urban slums. Therefore this study was conducted to assess the unmet need for FP services and its determinants among this under-privileged and under-served section of society residing in urban slums of Uttar Pradesh, India.MethodsCross sectional study was conducted in the slums of Lucknow, India. One Urban-Primary Health Centre (U-PHC) was randomly selected from each of the eight Municipal Corporation zones in Lucknow and two notified slums were randomly selected from each U-PHC. All the households in the selected slums were visited for interviewing 33 young married women (YMW) in each slum, with a pre-structured and pre tested questionnaire, to achieve the sample size of 535. Analysis of the data was done using logistic regression.ResultsThe unmet need for family planning services among YMW was 55.3%. About 40.9% of the unmet need was for spacing methods and 14.4% for limiting methods. Important reasons cited for unmet need for family planning services were negligent attitude of the women towards family planning, opposition by husband or others, embarrassment / hesitation / shyness for contraceptive use, poor knowledge of the FP method or availability of family planning services. Among method related reasons health concerns and fear of side effects were frequently cited reasons. On multiple logistic regression: age, educational status, duration of marriage, number of pregnancies, knowledge of contraceptive methods, opposition to contraceptive use and contact with Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) showed independently significant association with unmet need for family planning services.ConclusionsUnmet need for family planning services is very high among the YMW of urban slums. The findings stress that program managers should take into cognizance these determinants of high level of unmet need for family planning among YMW and make intense efforts for addressing these issues in a holistic manner.
Highlights
NFHS-4 stated high unmet need for family planning (FP) among married women in Uttar Pradesh
The total demand for family planning among the young married women living in urban slums of Lucknow was 87.6% (68.2% for spacing and 19.4% for limiting)
It was found to be present in more than half (55.3%) of the young married women; of which in about 40.9% was for spacing methods and in 14.4% for limiting methods
Summary
NFHS-4 stated high unmet need for family planning (FP) among married women in Uttar Pradesh. Few data is available about unmet need for FP among vulnerable section of the community, i.e.15–24 year’s age group living in the urban slums. This study was conducted to assess the unmet need for FP services and its determinants among this under-privileged and under-served section of society residing in urban slums of Uttar Pradesh, India. The urban poor have higher fertility, high unmet need for family planning services and poor maternal health outcomes [1]. The unmet need for family planning has been reported to be the highest among women who are younger than 20 years of age, and lowest among women aged 35 and older; these differences being found to be widest in South Central Asia, including India [2].
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