CORRELATES OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE

Abstract

Nigeria is the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa with a total fertility rate of 5.7 children per women, and a population growth rate of 2.5% per annum. The contraceptive prevalence rate is low, despite the fact that about 70% of the women know of at least a method of contraception. Though factors affecting contraceptive use among women have been reported for selected areas in Nigeria, a report on the factors affecting the use of contraception based on a national survey has not been reported. This study examines factors influencing contraceptive use among Nigerian women of childbearing age, using data from a nationally representative surveys. The study utilized -secondary dataset on 33,385 women of reproductive age (15-49years) interviewed in the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey. SPSS version 15 was used for the analysis. frequency tables were generated to summarize variables of interest. Further analyses were performed using Chi-square and Logistic regression. Prevalence rates of use were calculated for various population characteristics. The relationship between the socio-demographic as well as maternal factors and contraceptive use was ascertained, using odds ratio in binary logistic regression model. The prevalence rate of current contraceptive use for all methods was 13.2%, while that of modern contraceptive methods was 9.4%. Of the variables tested as possible factors affecting the use of modem contraceptives in Nigeria, results showed that age, level of education, marital status, occupation, place of residence, region, religion, ethnicity, wealth index, parity, antenatal care attendance, number of antenatal care visits and place of delivery were statistically significantly associated with current use of modern contraceptives. Compared with those without education, respondents with primary, secondary and higher education were 2 to 3 times as likely to be using modern contraceptive method. Women who were currently and formerly married were respectively 60% and 70% less likely to be using contraception, compared to never married. Urban respondents were about 20% times more likely (p<0.01) to use modem contraceptives compared with their rural counterparts. Using North-central as the reference category, the odds of using modern contraceptives are significantly lower in the Northeast (p<0.01), North-west (P<0.01), and Southeast (p<0.01). Catholics (p<0.01), other Christians (p<0.01 ), and Traditionalists/others (p=0.032) were about 59%, 48%, and 49% respectively more likely to be using contraceptives compared to Muslims. Contraceptive usage also increased with wealth index, with women in richest (OR=2.48, p<0.01), richer (OR..=:.2.30, p<0.01), and middle (OR=l.75, p<0.01) wealth quintile much more likely to use modern contraceptive compared to the women who fell in the poorest wealth category. Compared to those without children, those with parity 4 and above were about 5 times as likely to use, while those with one child, two children and three children were about 2 to 3 times as likely to use modern contraceptives. Prevalence rates were very low across virtually all segments of the population. Concerted efforts are required to increase use prevalence of modern methods of contraception. This will result in the improvement of maternal and child health, control population explosion and enhance human development and well-being .