A comparative analysis of modern contraceptive use among young and older women in Uganda

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine modern contraceptive use and its determinants among young and older women in Uganda. It aimed at finding out whether education level, type of place of residence, wealth index, religion, region, marital status and total number of children ever born have a significant relationship with current contraceptive use among young and older women. Secondary data collected from the UDHS 2016 carried out by UBOS was used in this study. The sample was restricted to all women aged 15-34 years, splitting the group into young women (15- 24 years) and older women (25-34 years). The analysis was done using frequency distribution, Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression with the age group variable as an interaction term. From univariate analysis, results show that only 30.4% of the women were using contraceptives at the time of the survey, with older women exceeding young women by 16%. Majority of the women were living together with their partners (36.7%) and older women were 6.3% more than young women. More than half of the women had born a total of less than 3 children (59.9%) and of these, a great part were young women (87.8%). Majority of the women were of the Catholic religion (44.2%) and most of the women belonged to households in the poorest quintile of the wealth index (22.6%). Results from the bivariate analysis show that all predictor variables except religion had a significant relationship with modern contraceptive use for both young and older women (p<0.05). The young (91.9%) and older women (81.2%) with no education were found to have the highest percentages of contraceptive non-use. West Nile region had the lowest percentages of contraceptive use for both young (8.6%) and older women (4.9%). Young women not living together with their partners (34%) and older women who were married (41.4%) had the highest percentages of contraceptive use. In multivariable analysis, five key predictors of modern contraceptive use among young older women were discovered. These were the highest education level, wealth index, marital status, region, and the total number of children ever born. The highest educational level, marital status, and region exhibited variations in influence on contraceptive use between young and older women. Older women with secondary-level education had higher odds of using contraceptives than young women with no education (OR=17.21, p<0.05). Older women who were married had higher odds of using contraceptives than young women who had never married (OR=13.75, p<0.05). Additionally, older women from west Nile had higher odds of using contraceptives than young women from Kampala (OR=1.39, p<0.05). It was also concluded that older women have higher odds of using contraceptives than young women in this study (OR=7.76, p<0.05). The study highlighted a need to tailor family planning policies to cater to the specific needs of a particular age group of women, encourage young women to pursue higher education levels, and address the regional imbalance in the provision of women’s health care services. The study also recommended extending free contraceptives like pills to young women.