Contraceptive use among women with no fertility intention in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries with high unintended pregnancy rate. Every woman in Ethiopia experiences at least one unintended birth. Although there were some studies about contraceptive use among all women in Ethiopia, evidence about contraceptive use among women with no fertility intention was limited. Therefore, this analysis was performed to assess the prevalence of contraceptive use and associated factors among fecund, married reproductive-age women who intended no more children.

We used the 2016 Ethiopian Demography and Health Survey (EDHS) data collected through a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. EDHS was a community based, cross-sectional study conducted from January 18, 2016, to June 27, 2016. A total of 2,859 fecund married reproductive age women with no desire to have more children were included in this study. Both descriptive and logistic regression analysis were performed using STATA V.14. A 95% confidence interval was used to declare statistical significance.

Contraceptive use among fecund married reproductive-age women who want no more children was 51.1% (95%CI: 47.0-55.24%). Visit by health workers at home (AOR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.83), living in Addis Ababa (AOR = 3.38 95%CI: 1.76, 6.37) and having better wealth index (middle (AOR = 1.76, 95%CI: 1.25, 2.47) and being rich (AOR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.40, 2.74)) were found positively associated with contraceptive use. On the other hand, living in the Somali region (AOR = 0.10, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.85), and being Muslim (AOR = 0.45, 95%CI: 0.30, 0.67) were found negatively associated with contraceptive use.

Contraceptive use among fecund married reproductive-age women with no fertility intention was low compared to their demand. Therefore, to improve contraceptive use, the provision of family planning counseling and information should be strengthened. Further intervention is needed to narrow disparities in contraceptive use among regions and different population groups.