Prevalence Of Unmet Need Of Contraception Among Married Females

Abstract

Background: Women with unmet need are who report not wanting any more children or wanting to delay the next child but not using any contraceptives. Government of India is committed to achieve Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.1 by the year 2017 which is still not achieved in many states. This disparity is observed due to failure to reach to the women who need contraceptive and were not offered contraceptives by various reasons including familial, social, religious or personal reasons. Aims and Objectives: The objective of this study was to find the prevalence of unmet need among females and to find the reasons for their unmet needs. Material and Methodology: This was a cross sectional study conducted in Panwadi area of Bhavnagar city during August to November 2018. Total four months were needed to complete the study. It was a convenient sampling method by which total 328 females were contacted during house to house interview and out of them 300 female were eligible or have given consent for the same based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. A pre formed pretested Performa was used to collect the data. Data entry and analysis was done in Microsoft excel. Number, percentage and chi-square test were used to analyse the data and to come to the final conclusion. Results: The prevalence of unmet need among the female, was 21%. The need was more for spacing methods (17.6%) as compared to terminal methods (03.3%). Majority of the female from the age group 20-35 years of age group (27%) out of them 7% of total having unmet need for family planning. Desire for male child (26.9%), unwillingness of male partner (17.5%), fear Of side effects (14.2%), family disapproval (12.6%), unaware about need (11.1%) have been found major cause for not finding or not accessing the family planning methods. Conclusion : Prevalence of 21% of unmet need is quite high. A countrywide study should be done to assess the need and programmes should be modified accordingly [Koria B T Natl J Integr Res Med, 2019; 10(2):21-24]