Measuring "Intent Satisfied": Toward a Person-Centered Metric of Contraceptive Use

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Demography
• Reproductive Health

Background:

• Traditional metrics for contraceptive use and family planning program impact lack consensus and a person-centered approach.
• Existing measures have evolved slowly and may not fully capture individual contraceptive preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the utility of women's expressed intent to use (ITU) contraceptives as an understudied family planning measure.
• To assess how ITU captures near-term contraceptive needs and differs from the "unmet need" metric.
• To propose a new person-centered metric, "intent satisfied," for population-level contraceptive use.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Performance Monitoring for Action program across 10 low- and middle-income countries.
• Assessed the relationship between women's intent to use contraceptives and their near-term needs.
• Analyzed the "demand satisfied" indicator and proposed the "intent satisfied" metric.

Main Results:

• Women's expressed intent to use contraceptives (ITU) provides insights into near-term contraceptive needs.
• The proposed "intent satisfied" metric offers a more person-centered estimate of population-level contraceptive use.
• Significant differences exist between ITU and traditional "unmet need" measures.

Conclusions:

• The "intent satisfied" metric, derived from ITU, better aligns with women's stated needs for contraception.
• Routine reporting of ITU is recommended to improve family planning indicators and program evaluation.
• Further data efforts are needed to refine and integrate ITU into standard family planning metrics.