Factors affecting contraceptive use among currently married women in Iraq in 2018

Level of contraceptive use is one of the primary proximate determinants of fertility level. Among Arab countries, Iraq experiences high fertility rates, especially among adolescents. According to the 2018 Iraq Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (IMICS 2018), 52.8% of currently married Iraqi women used a contraceptive method (36.1% used modern methods, and 16.7% used traditional methods). A multiple multinomial logistic regression model was adopted to investigate the demographic, socioeconomic, fertility, and cultural determinants of contraceptive use among currently married, nonpregnant Iraqi women based on the 2018 Iraq Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data. The main findings indicated that women using modern contraceptive methods had more children, did not experience the death of a child, and had no desire for more children. Moreover, they were married before age 21, had at least an upper secondary education, had access to mass media, used the internet, belonged to a low or middle wealth category, and lived in urban Kurdistan. Kurdish women prefer to use traditional methods. The results suggest that family planning programmes should target women who live in southern/central areas of Iraq, as they were the least likely to use contraceptives, and motivate Kurdish women to use modern contraceptives rather than traditional contraceptives.