High Levels Of Contraceptive Use Research Articles

Gender preference and birth spacing in matlab, Bangladesh

Gender preference, particularly son preference, is believed to sustain high fertility in many Asian countries, but previous research shows unclear effects. We examine and compare gender-preference effects on fertility in two otherwise comparable populations in Bangladesh that differ markedly in their access to and use of contraception. We expect, and find, stronger effects of gender preference in the population that has more access to contraception and higher levels of contraceptive use. Thus gender preference may emerge as a significant barrier to further national family planning efforts in Bangladesh. We find that if a woman has at least one daughter, the risk of a subsequent birth is related negatively to the number of sons. Women with no daughters also experience a higher risk of having a subsequent birth; this finding suggests that there is also some preference for daughters. Son preference is strong in both the early and later stages of family formation, but women also want to have at least one daughter after having several sons.

Approaching Replacement Fertility in Thailand: Results of the 1987 Demographic and Health Survey

The most striking finding of the 1987 Thailand Demographic and Health Survey is the very low level of recent fertility. For the 24-month period preceding the survey the total fertility rate of 2.2 is approximately at the replacement level. Contraceptive prevalence has continued to increase steadily and is now at 68% among the 6775 currently married women aged 15-44 in the survey a level close to that prevailing in the economically developed countries. In addition almost all contraceptive practice involves use of effective modern methods. Socioeconomic differences in the level of use are minimal among Thai-speaking Buddhists who constitute 88% of the Thai population. Distinctly lower levels of contraceptive prevalence are found only among a few minority groups. Family size preferences have also fallen and a clear consensus for a 2-child family has emerged among recently married women suggesting that low fertility is likely to prevail in Thailand for the foreseeable future. Unmet need for family planning is now minimal at the national level (5% of currently married women aged 15-49) and the main challenge for the national family planning program will be to maintain rather than extend the current high level of contraceptive use. (authors modified)

The effects of family planning effort and development on fertility: an intervening variables framework.

PIP: To pinpoint the intervening variable that transmit the impacts of development and family planning effort on fertility, a modified proximate determinants model was applied to data from 59 developing countries. The intermediate variable included level of exposure to sexual intercourse (the percentage of women 20-24 years old in a union), deliberate marital fertility control (the percentage of married women of reproductive age who were using contraception), and natural marital fertility (operationalized as average per capita calorie consumption). The regression equations indicated that both social development and family planning effort can influence fertility levels substantially through their association with higher levels of contraceptive use. Interestingly, the direct effects of family planning and social development on the crude birth rate became insignificant when the intermediate variables were included in the same equation. Path analysis revealed that social development has an indirect effect of -0.083 via its influence on marriage patterns and of -0.316 due to its effect on contraceptive usage. Family planning has a lesser indirect impact on fertility (-0.487), and -0.111 of this effect reflects program effort's dependence on the level of social development. Economic development is positively linked to fertility, and future research should assess whether this factor is partially counterbalancing the fertility-reducing impact of social development and family planning programs. Although this analysis confirms that delayed marriage and widespread adoption of contraception are key intervening variables, they cannot influence fertility in societies where there are social or cultural impediments to such changes.

Cohabiting Couples Have Frequent Intercourse and High Levels of Contraceptive Use, Study Finds

Cohabiting Couples Have Frequent Intercourse and High Levels of Contraceptive Use, Study Finds

Does Family Planning Reduce Infant Mortality?: Reply

Recent reviews of relevant evidence have confirmed that an increase in the practice of family planning can theoretically reduce infant and child mortality rates. Although it is widely accepted that family planning can theoretically reduce infant and child mortality it is not clear whether the changes in family-formation patterns that typically accompany the adoption of contraception do in fact have a significant favorable effect on infant mortality rates. This note compares the proportions of high-risk pregnancies in groups of developing countries at different stages of the family planning transition. Countries with relatively high levels of contraceptive use have fewer teenage births as well as fewer births of orders over 6 when compared with countries in which family planning is minimal. These differentials would by themselves result in lower infant mortality rates in the later phases of the fertility transition. This effect is offset however by the fact that countries with higher levels of contraceptive prevalence also tend to have higher proportions of births of order 1 and higher proportions of births after short birth intervals both of which are associated with higher than average mortality risks. The net effect of these 2 compensating sets of factors on infant mortality rates is very small. Thus changes in the age/order/interval distributions of births do not necessarily improve the chances for survival of infants as a society moves through a fertility transition.

Contraceptive Use in Canada, 1984

Canada's first national fertility survey, carried out by telephone in 1984, found that 68 percent of all women aged 18-49-73 percent of currently married women, 69 percent of the previously married women and 57 percent of single women--are practicing contraception. Overall, the most widely used method of birth control in Canada is sterilization (male and female), which is relied on by almost 60 percent of all married users and 66 percent of previously married users. Among single women, the preferred method is the pill, chosen by seven out of 10 of such users. Among all women, the major determinant of method choice is age: The pill is overwhelmingly chosen by women under 25, and sterilization, by those 30 and over. While the IUD and the condom are used by roughly 10-14 percent of women in their 20s who practice contraception, these methods decline in importance with increasing age. Highly educated women are less likely than those with little education to elect sterilization, and more likely to rely on barrier methods. Differences in contraceptive prevalence and patterns of use between Catholics and Protestants have all but disappeared in Canada, but church attendance and country of birth appear to exert a modest influence on method choice. As might be anticipated, women whose family size is complete have considerably higher levels of contraceptive use than those who expect to have more children. The survey reveals no difference in contraceptive use between Quebec women and those in the rest of Canada, thus confirming both the accuracy of earlier Quebec studies showing extremely high levels of sterilization and the applicability of these findings to all other Canadian women.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Preference for Sons, Family Size, and Sex Ratio: An Empirical Study in Korea

This study investigates the effects of son preference on sex ratio and fertility at the family level, utilizing World Fertility Survey data for Korea, whose population is known to have a strong preference for sons and a fairly high level of contraceptive use. The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) of siblings in small families is considerably higher than in large families. The sex ratio of last-born children in families of any size is markedly higher than that of the previous children. The sex distribution of children for a given family size, if less than five, deviates significantly from the Bernoulli sequence. The observed frequency of all-girl families is especially small in comparison with the expected value. The sex of the last child strongly influences couples' decision making regarding additional births in all steps of family building except for bearing a second child. In increasing their families to moderate size, parents appear to take into consideration the sex distribution of all earlier births.

The Delivery and Use of Contraceptive Services in Rural Tunisia

This article summarizes a 1981 report published by the National Family Planning and Population Office an agency of the Ministry of Public Health of Tunisia. The report provides insights into the fertility and contraceptive behavior of rural Tunisian women and the problems that they face in obtaining family planning services as well as implications for future programs. The report examines family planning attitudes and practice contraceptive availability and accessibility and the unmet demand for family planning in 1 of Tunisias 21 administrative regions the province of Jendouba. The results of 2 special studies are presented here: the 1979 Contraceptive Prevalence Survey a representative sample of 1827 currently married women aged 15 to 49 living in Jendouba; and a 2 1/2 year pilot community based experiment known as Family Planning for Rural Couples (PFPC) which was designed to increase contraceptive availability and use among rural families in 1/2 of the province. 2 most significant findings are the substantial unmet demand for family planning and the inaccessibility of traditional service outlets for the majority of the provinces rural women. Contraceptive users and nonusers alike reported that it was difficult to get to a family planning service provider. The largely urban based health facilities in Jendouba have not adequately met the family planning needs of women living in widely scattered settlements particularly those interested in obtaining the pill and barrier methods. The PFPC outreach experiment provided a low cost nonclinical service delivery model for rural Tunisia that would increase availability and accessibility of family planning services. Results confirm that when contraceptives are distributed at the household and community levels there can be a dramatic initial increase in new acceptor rates. However the pilot project also demonstrates that effective referral mechanisms and permanent resupply points in the community together with sustained information and education activities are essential in order to achieve and maintain high levels of contraceptive use. (authors modified) (summary in FRE)

Contraceptive Use and Fertility in the Republic of Panama

Panama has a high prevalence of contraception, with surgical sterilization being the dominant method. Use of contraception is fairly high even in rural areas. Seventy-one percent of users named a public sector source for their contraception. High use of contraception is part of an overall program of public sector maternal and child health services that also shows substantial penetration of rural areas. The high reliance on public sector sources in panama distinguishes it from other Latin American populations with comparable levels of contraceptive use, such as Sao Paulo state, Brazil, and Costa Rica. These populations also differ in that oral contraceptives are the most prevalent method of contraception. The survey results indicate that the risk of unplanned pregnancy is greatest for unemployed married women who have children. It is particularly important to expand program coverage in rural areas, where two-thirds of those at risk of unplanned pregnancies reside; risk of an unplanned pregnancy for rural women is more than twice that for urban women. While unmarried teenage women do not appear to constitute an important group by this definition, there are other compelling reasons, some supported by other results of the survey, for a special effort oriented toward teenagers. The experience of Panama may be unique in many ways. It shows that an integrated MCH-FP public sector program can meet a high demand for surgical contraception and achieve a fairly high level of contraceptive use. Finally, the results illustrate the value of periodic surveys to gauge the impact of public health programs by monitoring trends in contraceptive use, fertility, breastfeeding, and other aspects of reproductive health.