Determinants of Unmet Need for Family Planning Among Currently Married Reproductive Age Women at Dewa Chefa District of Oromia Special Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 2021; A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Abstract Background Unmet need for family planning is a proportion of women among reproductive age group who want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using any method of contraception. An estimated 23 million reproductive age women have an unmet need for modern contraception. Thus, understanding factors associated with unmet need specific to the study area can help planners strengthen programs. Most of studies conducted previously are cross sectional and there are controversies between studies. Thus, this study aimed to identify determinants of unmet need for family planning among currently married reproductive age women of Dewa Chefa district. Methods Community based unmatched case control study was conducted from March 29-April 25, 2021 G.C on 462 currently married reproductive age women (154 cases and 308 controls) in Dewa Chefa District. A structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. Collected data were entered to Epi-data 3.1 and exported to SPSS 23 for analysis. Binary Logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with unmet need and variables with p-value < 0.05 in the final model were taken as statistically significant. Results A total of 462 subjects had participated in this study, with 100% response rate. The mean age of the respondents was 27.92 years (with SD of ± 6.3) Age of woman 35–49 [AOR = 6.6 (1.1–39)], having poor knowledge on FP [AOR = 1.9 (1.1–3.1)], using FP decided by husband [AOR = 3.8 (2.1–6.9)], using FP decided together [AOR = 2.3 (1.07–5.1)] and have no support and disapproval of husband for FP use [AOR = 2.1 (1.08-4)] were factors significantly associated with unmet need. Conclusion and Recommendations Age of the woman and main decider of FP use were found to have positive significant association, while having knowledge about FP and support and approval of spouse for FP use were found to have negative significant association with unmet need for FP. Thus, family planning providers, District health office and other concerned bodies should more strengthen female empowerment and male involvement in the program with strong couple counseling to reduce unmet need.