Abstract:
In the days of old, having many children gave economic might because the more people gave birth, the more hands were available to till the land and cultivate crops. However, with pressure on social amenities, scarce resources, high dependency ratio, lack of employment and high incidence of poverty, a lot of people are trying to limit the number of children they give birth to. The aim of this thesis was to determine factors affecting contraceptive use among women aged 15-49 years in Worawora township. A cross sectional survey using quantitative method was employed. A total of 390 women were conveniently sampled and a questionnaire was administered to obtained data. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was employed using binary logistic model. Majority of the respondents were within the 15-24 age group and were predominantly Christian. We found significant association between the use of contraceptives and age, number of children, number per household, occupation, marital status, educational level of partner and discussing with partner before using contraceptives.
Women in the age group 41-49 years were less likely to use contraceptive as compared to their counterpart in age group 15-24 years. As the number of children increased, there were higher odds of using contraceptive among women who had 1-3 children. The occupation of the respondents did not influence the use of contraceptive. Women who were divorced were 4.4 times more likely to use contraceptives. Religion was not significantly associated with the use of contraceptives. Moslems were 1.2 times more likely to use contraceptives compared to traditionalists. Occupation of husband had no influence on contraceptives use. Partners who had secondary education were 2.1 times more likely to use contraceptives compared to partners with primary education. Respondents who discussed with their partner before using contraceptive were less likely to have use contraceptive as compared to those who did not discuss with their partners before use.
Conclusion: Knowledge and awareness of contraceptives use was high among women in Worawora township with age 15-24 years been the highest users. Policies on contraceptives use should aim at this age group.
Keywords: Contraceptive use, women aged 15-49 years, Worawora township
