Correlates of contraceptive non-use among married women in Nigeria.

• Main Author: Fisayo, Popoola Titilope
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Contraceptive non-use; Married women; Nigeria; Reproductive health; Contraceptive uptake
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/15413

Contraceptive non-use by women has been linked to negative reproductive health outcomes such as obstetric complications, abortions, and maternal morbidity and mortality. These poor outcomes mostly arise from unintended pregnancies. With focus on married women non-users, this study examined the factors influencing non-use of contraception in Nigeria. The research identified a number of important characteristics which could predispose married women in Nigeria to non-use of contraceptive. Data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) was utilized. The target population comprised all females aged 15-49 years who were interviewed and responded to questions on contraceptive use. The sample size was 23,954 which were made up of all married women in the country except for infecund, pregnant and sterilized women. The outcome variable was measured using current contraceptive use which was dichotomized: not using contraceptive coded as (1) and using contraceptive coded as (0). Logistic regression was used for the analysis. 20,983 married women (88% of the study population) reported that they are contraceptive non-users. Of these, the following characteristics of married women had higher odds of contraceptive non-use. Women who want more children within 2years, unsure of timing and undecided had higher odds (2.17) of contraceptive non-use, women who are 35 years and above (1.80), women who are from North West, North East and North Central (5.35, 2.95, 1.64, respectively), women who are Muslims (1.43) had higher odds of contraceptive non-use in Nigeria. The association remained statistically significant for women’s wealth index, number of living children, occupation, and place of residence, partner’s education and educational level of women. And all these were also observed to have effect on the non-use of contraceptive. Non-use of contraceptive among married women in Nigeria differs between women possibly because of region, religion, fertility intention, and age difference. These findings indicate areas that reproductive health policies and programmes should focus on in order to increase contraceptive uptake among married women in Nigeria. .