Measuring Unmet Family Planning Need Differences and Levels of Agreement between Husband and Wife, Gedeo Zone, SNNPR
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: - The total fertility rate of Ethiopia was 5.4 with 34 percent unmet needs for family
planning. Although the contraceptive prevalence rate among women of reproductive age (15-49
years) has doubled during the last ten years, it still remains very low. This may indicate the
existence of some barriers that prohibit couples from using family planning even if they desire to
limit or delay births in 2005 in Ethiopia.
Objective: - To assess the magnitude of unmet family planning need differences and levels of
agreement between husband and wife, Gedeo Zone, Southern Nation and Nationality People Region.
Methods: - A cross-sectional comparative, community based study was conducted in Gedeo
zone. The data were collected between 20 January and 15 February 2011. Wonago wereda and
Yirgacheffe town administration were selected by simple random sampling method. Using
random sampling technique, a total of 254 wives and 254 husbands in six rural and three urban
kebeles were selected for the study. A structured pre-tested standard questionnaire was used for
data collection. Data entry, cleaning and analysis were done using the EPI INFO version 3.5.1
and SPSS version 19 statistical package. Statistical tests such as Chi -square, logistic regression
was used and also level of agreement amongst spouses was analyzed using Kappa statistics.
Results: Unmet need for family planning was 39.4% for wives and 11.4% for husbands. The
difference was seen both in unmet need for spacing (28.8% for wives vs. 8.3% for husbands) as
well as limiting family size (10.6% for wives vs. 3.1% for husbands). Overall, the observed
concordance was 51.49% for contraceptive use, 72.05% for unmet need, 92.9% for ideal number
of children and 96.85% for contraceptive attitude. The kappa statistic varied from a low of 0.062
(P<0.004) for ever use of contraception to a high of 0.887 for ideal number of children with
contraceptive attitude 0.802 (P<0.000), unmet need 0.331 (P<0.000) and current use of
contraception 0.122 (P<0.000).
Conclusion: Unmet need for family planning was significantly higher for wives compared to
husbands and overall, a greater degree of agreement was observed regarding reproductive health
events, family planning attitudes and unmet need. It is also evident that increasing awareness and
acceptance of contraceptive use among women is not enough, the study recommends developing
an effective family planning program intervention to involve men in the Reproductive
Health/Family Planning (RH/FP) programs and raise awareness among both men and women
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Keywords
Family Planning