Socio-Demographic Determinants of Family Planning Service Utilization among Women of Reproductive Age in Urban Communities of Imo State, Nigeria

摘要

Introduction: Manydeveloping countries are characterized by rapid population growth, which ispartly attributed to high fertility rates, high birth rates, accompanied bysteady declines in death rates, low contraceptive use and high but decliningmortality rate. AIM: To determine the factors influencing family planningmethod use among women of reproductive age in urban communities of Imo state,Nigeria. Method,ology: The study was a community based descriptivecross-sectional study involving 560 women of reproductive age who met theinclusion criteria and were selected using the multistage sampling technique. The data were collected using a pretested, semi-structured andinterviewer administered questionnaire and were analyzed using EPI-INFOversion 3.2.1. A ,-value ≤ 0.05 was consideredsignificant. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 32.7 ± 7.7 years with most of the women(99.1%) being aware of family planning. The common methods known were; pills(65.2%), injections (62.5%), condoms (61.3%) and natural familyplanning methods (49.5%). The prevalence of ever use and current use of familyplanning was 54.1% and 35.1% respectively and the commonest method ever (36%)and currently (26%) used was the condom. The factors found to significantlyinfluence family planning method use in the study were: age of women, religion, familysize, number of male children, monthly income, being able to access and pay forfamily planning services without partners financial support, contraceptiveknowledge, prior discussion of family planning with partner, partner being insupport of modern family planning methods use and previous use of any form ofcontraception. Conclusion: Most ofthe factors found to influence use can be modified by appropriate interventionprograms.  Thus there is need toinstitute these intervention programs by authorities concerned so as toincrease utilization of services and reduce consequent problems.