Factors Affecting Contraceptive Use Among Married Women in Chuadanga District, Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-demographic determinants of contraceptive use among the married women in Chuadanga District, Bangladesh. A sample of 300 women comprising 200 from rural and 100 from urban was used. Some statistical tools such as cross tabulation, chi-square test statistic, and binary logistic regression model were used through SPSS-10, to assess the association between contraceptive use and demographic and socioeconomic variables, with special focus on contraceptive use behaviour of the married women. In our study, 88.0% of the respondents practice contraceptives, and the remaining 12.0% do not practice. Chi-square test statistics shows that respondent age at first marriage and couple’s educational qualification are the most important significant factors that are associated with the use of contraception. The second most significant factors include current age, parity, religion and watching TV. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that among the included socio-demographic variables only four variables—i.e., age at first marriage, religion, both respondents’ and their spouses’ educational qualification—are statistically significant. From the cross tabulation and logistic regression analysis, we find that women with secondary and below level are more likely to use contraceptives than higher educated women. In case of husbands’ educational level, the reverse is true. Thus, the risk of contraceptive use is higher among low level educated younger women and lower age at marriage.