Prevalence Of Contraceptive Use Among Married Women Residing In Urban Area

Abstract

Background: Population explosion is one of the main hazards to the development of India. Contraception plays an important role to halt population growth but it is one of the most deserted part of maternal and child health care. Even after India being the first country to launch the family planning programme still the prevalence of contraceptive use is low which in turn increases the maternal and infant mortality rate. The use of contraception can be influenced by many factors which we tried to find in this study so that the factors can be addressed well and the prevalence rate can be increased. Objectives: To know the prevalence of contraceptive use among married women and to study the factors influencing the use of contraception. Methodology: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 600 married women aged 15 to 44 years residing in three urban field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, J.N. Medical College, Belagavi. Information regarding socio-economic status, educational status, age at marriage, married life, total number of children, usage of contraceptive method, reason for non usage and knowledge about contraceptive method was collected using pretested and predesigned questionnaire. Knowledge scoring was done using indices like knowledge about name, place of availability and side effects of contraception. Results: In the present study the age of the married women ranged from 20 to 42 years and the mean age (± SD) was 29 ± 4.52 years. About 50.3% women were Hindus, 57.8% belonged to nuclear family, 97.5% of the women were literates and 82.3% of the women were housewives. Among married women 100% had knowledge regarding Condom, 99.0% had knowledge about Sterilization method, 84.0% had knowledge about Intrauterine contraceptive device, 68.5% knew about oral contraceptive pill, 40.5% had knowledge about injectable, 29.8%, about rhythm method, 24.3% abstinence method and 15.8% lactational amenorrhoea method. About 47.3% of the women had gender preference. The prevalence of contraceptive use was 58.8%, among these 16.0% were condom user,18.9% were using Intra uterine device, 4.3% were practicing rhythm method, 3.3% of them were using oral contraceptive pill and 16.3% were practicing sterilization method. Among the married women who had good knowledge,knowledge score for condom was highest (43.0%). There was significant association between the age, religion, literacy status, occupation, family type, gender preference and socio economic status of married women with the prevalence of contraceptive use. There was significant association between knowledge score regarding condom, intrauterine contraceptive device, oral contraceptive pill and sterilization method with the practice of the same. Conclusion: The prevalence of contraceptive use was low. The important amendable reason for not using contraception should be properly addressed by proper counselling for both husband and wife and providing proper information regarding contraceptive by removing their blind beliefs.