Factors associated with contraceptive use among females in the reproductive age (15-49 years) in Uganda

Abstract

Much of the research literature about the use of family planning generalizes contraceptive use among all women, using age as a covariate. In Uganda, a country with divergent trends in modern family planning use, this study was set to explore whether or not the predictors of contraceptive use differ by age, education level, marital status, place of residence, religion and wealth status. This was assessed by using cross-sectional data from the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS).

The sample restricted from each round to productive, non-pregnant married women age 15–49 who were sexually active within one year prior to the survey, resulting in a sample of 20,000 women. A logistic regression was used with age variable used as an interaction term to model the relationship between selected independent variables and the outcome variable (contraception use) for each group of women.

It was found that the key factors associated with use of contraceptives varied among young and older married women aged 15–19 and 45-49 respectively. Results showed that Current contraceptive use is lowest among young women below age 25 years because they are in the early stages of family building and developing also among older women who are 45 and above.

The findings from the study showed that marital status, place of residence, and age of respondents remained strong factors in determining contraceptive use in Uganda. The findings from the study showed that all the factors remain strong in determining contraceptive use. The study therefore concluded that the contraceptive prevalence remained lowest among young sexually active women below age 25 years and older women of age 45 years and above some of whom are no longer productive than those at the immediate age in Uganda and is significantly attributed to a number of background factors.

The findings from the study should be availed to the Government of Uganda through Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in reproductive health in an effort to increase the availability of contraceptive prevalence by expanding on health infrastructure, and prioritize FP.