Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: February | Volume: 8 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 178-187
Utilization of Reversible Long Acting Contraceptive Methods and Associated Factors among Women Getting Family Planning Service in Governmental Health Institutions of Gondar City Administration, Northwest Ethiopia
Abera Shibru Tulu1, Truye Gebremariam2
1Department of Public Health, College Of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia
2Amhara National Regional State Health Department, Bahirdar, Ethiopia
Corresponding Author: Abera Shibru Tulu
ABSTRACT
Background: Bearing many children are among the factors which affect maternal health status. The total fertility rate trend in the last two decades for Ethiopian women to give birth was more than 7 children in their life. According to the recent Mini-Ethiopian Demographic Health surveillance (EDHS) 2014, the average total fertility rate among Ethiopian women has reduced to 4.1 with 2.2 in urban and 4.5 in rural areas and contraceptive prevalence rate is 42%. Countries like Ethiopia with high fertility rate and unmet need of contraceptive shifting towards long-acting methods thus potentially playing an enormous role in reducing maternal mortality and child death. Hence, assessing Utilization of Reversible Long Acting Contraceptive Methods (LARCM) and associated factors among Women is of paramount importance.
Objective: To assess utilization of reversible long acting contraceptive methods and associated factors among women getting family planning service in governmental health Facilities of Gondar town.
Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 25 to April 25, 2015 in governmental health facilities found in Gondar city. A total of 614 women were included in the study. Data was collected with a structured pre-tested questionnaire using face to face interview technique. Data entry and cleaning was done using EPI-INFO version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Bivariate analysis was employed to see relationship between variables. Predictors having p–value ≤ 0.2 in Bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate model. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were computed. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant in multivariate model.
Results: A total of 614 reproductive age woman were interviewed with a response rate 100%. Two-hundred thirteen (34.7%) of them were in age group of 25 to 29 with a mean age of 25.9 (SD±5.75). The overall utilization of long acting contraceptive methods (IUD& implants) among the study population was 33.7% [95%CI: 29.9 -37.5]. The proportion of IUD utilization was 11.4% [95%CI: 8.8 -13.9].The utilization of LACM increase with increasing knowledge (28.9% in low knowledge, 46.4% moderate and 54.2% was found high among high knowledge). In the multivariate logistic regression the odds of LARCM utilization were 26.9 times higher among highly educated mother than illiterate (AOR = 26.9; 95% CI: 8.31, 87.08). Similarly, the odds of LARCM utilization were 3.5 times higher among highly knowledgeable about LARCM than lower knowledge (AOR= 3.5; 95%CI: 1.78, 6.89).
Conclusion and Recommendation: The overall utilization of long acting contraceptive method among the study population was high. Women`s education, overall knowledge of women about long acting reversible contraceptive methods found to be strongly associated with long acting reversible contraceptive method use. Information, education and communication provision to family planning users is important to increase their knowledge which in turn may increase LARCMs service utilization.
Key words: Utilization, Reversible, Long Acting, Contraceptive Methods, Family Planning, Gondar, Ethiopia