Contraceptive use dynamics in developing countries

Not so much has been documented about determinants of contraceptive use among sexually active younger women in comparison with older women. Most of the existing literature generalizes contraceptive use among all women. Understanding determinants of contraceptive use among different age groups is key in the development of highly effective family planning programmes.
Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2011 dataset was used. The sample comprised of 1,697 married and sexually active women. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between selected independent variables and the outcome variable (current use of modern contraception).
More factors were found to be associated with contraceptive use among young women (15-24) compared to older women (25-34). Contraceptive use among young women was associated with: education, region, empowerment and desire for children. Apart from desire for children, all other significant factors associated with contraceptive use were found among the young women (15-24).
It is recommended that there is need for consistent provision of Family Planning services to cater for spacing needs (desire) of the women as well as ensuring completion of secondary school since these were associated with contraceptive use.

The study examined the situation as regards contraceptive use and the factors affecting contraceptive use by people aged 15 – 49 years for females and 15 years and over for males and living with their spouse in Pattani among the two cultures coexisting within the state, Muslims and Buddhists, and from each group 110 females and 110 males were randomly selected, giving a total of 440 participants in all. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were statistically established. The data were analyzed by a logistic regression model.

India is the first country to launch the official family planning(FP) programme in the world, but missed the goals set every time. Since the big political turmoil due to coercive sterilization campaign in 1975, no political segment wants to be firm on the programme. Moreover, the programme managers have not been successful in translating the ICPD's approach (free from fear and coercion) and added more confusions since the launch of RCH programme in 1997. Thus, the country left much behind in the achievements of FP progress. In 2009, the Indian government initiated the repositioning of FP service in health agenda. Thus, this paper aims to study the contraceptive security(CS) by modifying USAID concept of CS in context of India and its major states. The paper deals with issue of finance, health and social environment, access and utilization of FP services. It is clear from the result that financing to FP services enhances the contraceptive security.

The female condom introduced in India two decades ago but in spite of Indian government support and social marketing it failed to generate awareness and demand among CSWs ( commercial sex workers) and general population. It is assumed that , Female Condom will give Indian women the freedom to take control over their bodies, their reproductive health, it was seen by many gender rights experts as a tool to empower women. The present study was conducted with CSWs, college going adolescent girls and chemists. Qualitative and quantitative methods were use to understand the awareness, knowledge about female condom, the factors determining use and non use of female condom and to explore the strategies to sustain use of female condom. The study reveals that low awareness, misconception about functionality of female condom, conservative views about sex, high cost, ignorance, lack of availability, discomfort, lack of publicity are key issues preventing chemist from stocking it and people buying and using it.

Increasing condom use is central to the national HIV/AIDS response in Ghana. Low condom use among sexually active Ghanaians, especially during high-risk sex, is a major challenge to HIV prevention. This paper examines the socio-cultural barriers to condom use in order to guide national efforts to reduce levels of unprotected sex. It also examines respondents’ condom use and individual HIV risk perceptions and identifies socio-cultural factors affecting condom use during high risk sexual activity. The study uses a randomly selected nationally representative sample of 2,074 males (12-59 years) and 3,953 females (12-49 years) and adopts descriptive and bivariate analyses and the condom barrier scale to assess barriers to condom use in Ghana within the context of HIV prevention. Among other things, the study finds differences in age, educational status and residence (rural/urban) to be significantly associated with perceptions of partner resistance to condom use in Ghana. The analysis further shows that more females than males face partner resistance to condom use during sexual activities across all the socio-demographic categories. Gender stereotypes that result in partner barriers must, therefore, receive adequate attention in the national HIV response relative to condom use against HIV and unwanted pregnancies.

Efforts made to improve the availability and access to adolescent sexual and reproductive health services have not yielded the expected results and the Kintampo Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS) area is no exception. This study seeks to explore the intentions and preferences for contraceptives among adolescents in rural Ghana and examines differences and determinants of intentions and preferences observed to make contributions towards meeting MDG 5b which is described as the most off-track of all MDGs. The source of data is a survey and the KHDSS database. The outcome variable is the intention and/or willingness of adolescents to use contraceptives and the explanatory variables are demographic and socio-economic factors. Descriptive and multivariate analysis were done using STATA 11.1. The expected findings are level of adolescents’ willingness for contraceptive use, most popular and reasons for not using contraceptives. This study will also show differences in the socio-demographic and economic sub-groups and determinants of the observations made

Though all contraceptive methods are promoted through 'Cafeteria Approach' female sterilization continues to be the most preferred method. Despite widespread availability and ubiquitous, knowledge, other contraceptive methods are often not used regularly or effectively. Therefore, the factors determine fertility choices and adoption of contraceptive need to be studied to develop appropriate strategies for fertility decline. This paper analyses the role of men as impediments or facilitators of fertility control. Qualitative data collected in two villages in South Udaipur in 2006 and 2008 demonstrate that men’s attitudes to use of modern contraception are highly dependent on having at least one boy child and achieving ideal family size. Discussions during interviews show that young couple are living in environment in which they are in familial pressure of proving their fertility. Pregnancy follows soon after marriage and occurs mostly during adolescence. Sex of the first child decides about planning their future fertility. Couples needs to be empowered with knowledge about negative consequences of early pregnancy and motivate to cope up with the familial and societal pressure for early pregnancy by taking fertility related decisions to plan their actual fertility.

The success of family planning (FP) program is measured not only by the improvement of contraceptive prevalence but also by the effectiveness and duration of contraceptive use. Therefore, in the future FP program needs to be focused in supporting couples in order to sustain contraceptive use through its good quality of FP services. Good quality of FP services also makes the risk of unwanted pregnancy lower as couples will be more devoted to practice a specific contraceptive method correctly.
This research uses the data of the 2007 IDHS calendar data by employing a random-effect logistic regression model. The objective is to study the influence of FP services quality and other socioeconomic and demographic factors on switching contraceptive behavior in Indonesia.
The multivariate analysis results show that the quality of FP services which consists of informed choice and FP officer’s visit significantly influence the possibility of FP acceptor to switch their contraceptive method. The result of this research also supports the previous researches that socio economic and demography factors significantly influence the possibility of FP acceptor to switch their contraceptive method.

The frequent contraceptive discontinuation among spacing method users, not only poses women
to a very high risk of unintended pregnancy but also exhibits the lesser conscious approach of
women to control their childbearing in India. In this context a large number of births preceded by
a contraceptive discontinuation/failure may be reported as unintended retrospectively.
Utilizing calendar data of National Family Health Survey (2005-06) this paper tries to estimate
the proportion of pregnancies reported as unintended/intended following the contraceptive
discontinuation and associated characteristics of the women.
The results suggest that 71% of the pregnancies following a method failure were reported as
unintended in comparison to 25% pregnancies which were not preceded by any contraception.
Among women who discontinued their method for reasons other than pregnancy, around 50%
reported their respective birth as unintended. The results from multivariate logistic regression
hint that the time-elapsed between contraceptive discontinuation and the index birth, age at the
time of conception, parity and place of the residence are the significant predictors of reporting a
pregnancy as intended/unintended retrospectively.

Background: It is believed that the world’s largest cohort of young people are set to enter their reproductive years (Blanc and others: 2009). The reproductive behaviour of this cohort is likely to shape and influence the growth of the world’s population for years to come (Blanc and others: 2009). Sexual behaviour among adolescents is often associated with adverse health outcomes such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STI’s), HIV infections, unwanted pregnancies as well as a high risk of complications during pregnancy (Mturi and others: 2005). Prior research has highlighted the lack of knowledge as the most frequent reason for the non-usage of contraceptives among young people (Mturi and others: 2005). Aim: This study is concerned with examining the relationship between knowledge and use of contraceptives among adolescent females in three Southern African countries namely: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Methodology: Data from the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for each country will be used. 2373 South African, 2205 Namibian and 1980 Zimbabwean females aged 15-19 will be included in the study. Three stages of analysis are necessary to meet the objectives of the study. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression techniques will be employed.