Improving quality of care and use of contraceptives in Senegal

In the 1990s, the government of Senegal implemented a series of policy changes for the provision of family planning services through the public sector. A strategy to provide high quality services through reference centres was adopted. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal survey of 1,320 Senegalese women who had sought family planning services at ten public sector facilities--five reference centres and five health centres. Information was collected on the quality of care they received at the time they adopted family planning. One thousand one hundred and ten of the respondents were followed up sixteen months later to ascertain their contraceptive status. The first principal finding was that attendees at reference centres reported receiving relative better care than those who attended health centres. On average, clients at reference centres received 4.3 out of five units of care, compared to 3.8 units as reported by health centre clients. Second, multivariate analyses indicated that quality of care received at the time of adopting a contraceptive has a significant influence on subsequent contraceptive use. Those who received good care were 1.3 times more likely to be using a method than others.