scholarly journals Sexual activity by marital status and age: a comparative perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 860-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Ueffing ◽  
Aisha N. Z. Dasgupta ◽  
Vladimíra Kantorová

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of trends in sexual activity by marital status and age, and their associations with contraceptive use. Understanding levels of, and trends in, sexual activity is important for assessing the needs for family planning services and for analysing commonly used family planning indicators. Data were taken from 220 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs) and 62 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICSs) to provide insights into sexual activity by marital status and age in a total of 94 countries in different regions of the world. The results show the sensitivity of the indicator with respect to the definition of currently sexually active, based on the timing of last sexual intercourse (during the last 4 weeks, 3 months, or 1 year). Substantial diversity in sexual activity by marital status and age was demonstrated across countries. The proportion of married women reporting recent sexual activity (sexual intercourse during the last 4 weeks) ranged from 50% to 90%. The proportion of unmarried women reporting recent sexual activity did not exceed 50% in any of the 94 countries with available data, but showed substantial regional differences: it appeared to be rare in Asia and extremely varied within Africa, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Among married women, sexual activity did not vary much by age group, while for unmarried women, there was an inverted U-pattern by age, with the youngest age group (15–19 years old) having the lowest proportion sexually active. The proportion of women who reported currently using contraception and reported not being sexually active varied by the contraceptive method used and was overall much greater among unmarried women. The evidence presented in this paper can be used to improve family planning policies and programmes to serve the diverse needs, for example regarding method choice and service provision, of unmarried women.

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
N Bhandari ◽  
GK Shrestha ◽  
PC Thakuri

Background The use of contraception can prevent pregnancies related complication and helps in improving the women’s health and quality of their lives. Objective To explore reproductive characteristics among married women of reproductive age. To find out method of contraceptive use and side effects among married women of reproductive age. To uncover factors related to contraceptive use among married women of reproductive age. Methods This cross-sectional was carried out among (369) married couples of reproductive age group in ward number 5, 6 and 7 of Dhulikhel Municipality using purposive sampling. Those who fell in between the age group of (14-49 years) and willing to participate were included and pregnant women were excluded from the study. Questionnaire was used to obtain informations. Results Among 369(81.3%) of the respondents of reproductive age were using a modern contraceptive method. Regarding education 331(89.5%) of women’s and 352(95.1%) of husbands were literate and 275(91.6%) of women were found to be involved in decision making and had good inter-spousal communication that is 280(93.3%). Among the temporary method of family planning, Depo-Provera was the choice 150(54.5%) of contraceptive method. Conclusion The present study put more emphasis on increase in women’s literacy, women’s involvement in decision making and inter-spousal communication which helps to promote the effective use of contraceptive methods. As women play an important role in the decision making, women should be included in all aspects of reproductive health and family planning programs. Journal of College of Medical Sciences-Nepal, 2013, Vol-9, No-4, 24-29 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jcmsn.v9i4.10233


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Alando ◽  
Adom Manu ◽  
Helen Habib ◽  
Emefa Modey ◽  
Kwasi Torpey ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Male participation in contraception is proven to have positive outcomes on reproductive health and remains a critical issue of public health importance. However, there dearth of evidence on male contraceptive use is in Ghana. Knowledge of the trends and trajectories of male contraceptive use could inform programmatic interventions to boost male contraceptive use for effective fertility control. Thus, this study sought to examine the trends in male contraceptive use using the three most recent Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Ghana in 2003, 2008 and 2014. Methods This paper examines trends in self-reported contraceptive use among sexually active Ghanaian males, using data from the three most recent national Demographic and Health Surveys (2003, 2008 and 2014). Frequency distributions of socio-demographic and background characteristics were used to describe the sample by each survey year. The Z test of proportions was used to identify significant differences in the estimated proportions and subgroups of male contraceptive use by survey year. The Combined data from the three nationally representative surveys were analysed, accruing a sample of 9,008, comprising (GDHS 2003=3,104; GDHS 2008=3,007; and GDHS 2014=2,897) male respondents who met the inclusion criteria. Results Male contraceptive use appears to have declined over the last three demographic surveys despite an increase in the proportion of sexually active males. A significant proportion of male contraception users (44.5% - 41.5%) still relied on the male condom as their primary contraception choice. Place of residence, educational attainment, occupation, region of residence and religious affiliation were all found to be significantly associated with male contraceptive use consistency. Conclusions There has been a significant decrease in contraceptive use by Ghanaian men between 2003 and 2014. The male condom appears to be the dominant modern male contraceptive method, especially during adolescence, but along the life course contraceptive use shifts towards modern female methods. There is a need for family planning service providers, policymakers and all relevant stakeholders to consciously target men with contraceptive products and services. Focusing programmes and policies towards improving men’s contraceptive use is an imperative for effective fertility regulation. Key Words: Trend Analysis, Male Contraception, Family Planning, Ghana


Author(s):  
Myint Myint Wai ◽  
Espen Bjertness ◽  
Hein Stigum ◽  
Thein Thein Htay ◽  
Tippawan Liabsuetrakul ◽  
...  

Despite increasing contraceptive use and prevalence, many women who want to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using contraceptives. This results in unintended pregnancies, which increases the risk of unsafe abortions. This study aimed to explore the extent of the unmet need for family planning (FP) among urban and rural married women in Myanmar and their demand for and satisfaction with FP. A cross-sectional survey using adapted Demographic and Health surveys questions was conducted in south and north Yangon from September 2016 to November 2016. A total of 1100 currently married women of 18–49 years participated. The contraceptive prevalence was 67.2% in total, 63% urban, and 70% rural. About 19.4% (95% CI: 16.7%–22.4%) of the studied women had an unmet need for FP, significantly higher in urban than rural women (22.6% versus 16.6%). Rural women also showed significant lesser odds (adjusted OR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.461–0.849) of unmet need than the urban counterparts. About 86% of the women had demand for contraception and 77% of them satisfied their demand. The study population revealed a fairly good contraceptive coverage; however, a considerable proportion of women had an unmet need for FP, especially the urban women. The demand for contraception is increasing, and contraceptive services need to expand coverage to marginalized groups in order to reduce the risk of unsafe abortions.


Author(s):  
Sonika Sangra ◽  
Neha Choudhary ◽  
Akash Narangyal

Background: Family planning services like use of modern contraceptives help the couples to delay pregnancy and avoid the unwanted pregnancies. So, understanding the choice of contraceptives for the underserved couples is a key for provision of family planning services. Objective was to assess the contraceptive use among married women of urban slums using semi-structured questionnaire.Methods: The present observational cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of one month i.e. November 2019 in urban slums of Trikuta Nagar, which is a field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, GMC Jammu. Information was gathered from married females of reproductive age group. 50% of the population was selected randomly by lottery method i.e. 90 females. But at the time of study, only 85 married females could be interviewed.Results: The results show that the maximum females belonged to the 15-25 years age group followed by 26-30 years age group. More than 50% were literate, 42.35% had education upto primary level. More than 50% females were self-employed as they were labourers and rests were home-makers. The duration of marriage of most of the respondent women was 0-5 years and 44.70% of women had three living children. 65.88% women had one year gap between the first two pregnancies.Conclusions: The information, education and communication activities about the advantages of using contraceptives and its side-effects while using these contraceptives need to be increased so as to promote the awareness among females of the urban slums.


Author(s):  
Radha Ramaiah ◽  
Srividya Jayarama

Background: India was the first country to implement Family Planning Programme in 1952. The extent of acceptance of contraceptive methods still varies within societies and also among different religious groups. Objectives: To determine knowledge, attitude, practice regarding contraceptive use among married women of reproductive age group in a rural area of Karnataka.Methods: A community based, cross sectional study was conducted among 200 married women of reproductive age group residing in a rural area of Karnataka. Data regarding knowledge, attitude, practice of contraceptive methods was collected using a predesigned questionnaire prepared in local language. Institutional ethical committee approval, informed consent from the study participants was taken and anonymity, confidentiality was ensured.Results: Out of 200 study participants, 81% had knowledge and awareness of family planning methods, positive attitude for contraceptive use was shown by 76% of study participants, 53% were practicing different contraceptive methods.Conclusions: Women education and counseling of couples can play an important role to adopt family planning methods. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin K. Mutua ◽  
Yohannes D. Wado ◽  
Monica Malata ◽  
Caroline W. Kabiru ◽  
Elsie Akwara ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The use of modern contraception has increased in much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the extent to which changes have occurred across the wealth spectrum among adolescents is not well known. We examine poor-rich gaps in demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods (DFPSm) among sexually active adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) using data from national household surveys. Methods We used recent Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to describe levels of wealth-related inequalities in DFPSm among sexually active AGYW using an asset index as an indicator of wealth. Further, we used data from countries with more than one survey conducted from 2000 to assess DFPSm trends. We fitted linear models to estimate annual average rate of change (AARC) by country. We fitted random effects regression models to estimate regional AARC in DFPSm. All analysis were stratified by marital status. Results Overall, there was significant wealth-related disparities in DFPSm in West Africa only (17.8 percentage points (pp)) among married AGYW. The disparities were significant in 5 out of 10 countries in Eastern, 2 out of 6 in Central, and 7 out of 12 in West among married AGYW and in 2 out of 6 in Central and 2 out of 9 in West Africa among unmarried AGYW. Overall, DFPSm among married AGYW increased over time in both poorest (AARC = 1.6%, p < 0.001) and richest (AARC = 1.4%, p < 0.001) households and among unmarried AGYW from poorest households (AARC = 0.8%, p = 0.045). DPFSm increased over time among married and unmarried AGYW from poorest households in Eastern (AARC = 2.4%, p < 0.001) and Southern sub-regions (AARC = 2.1%, p = 0.030) respectively. Rwanda and Liberia had the largest increases in DPFSm among married AGYW from poorest (AARC = 5.2%, p < 0.001) and richest (AARC = 5.3%, p < 0.001) households respectively. There were decreasing DFPSm trends among both married (AARC = − 1.7%, p < 0.001) and unmarried (AARC = − 4.7%, p < 0.001) AGYW from poorest households in Mozambique. Conclusion Despite rapid improvements in DFPSm among married AGYW from the poorest households in many SSA countries there have been only modest reductions in wealth-related inequalities. Significant inequalities remain, especially among married AGYW. DFPSm stalled in most sub-regions among unmarried AGYW.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Uprety ◽  
I S Poudel ◽  
A Ghimire ◽  
M Poudel ◽  
S Bhattrai ◽  
...  

Contraceptive use and fertility rates vary substantially among developing countries. An important factor, which affects the fertility of any population, is Contraceptive. Contraceptive use varies by age. Nepal over the past 15 years show an impressive increase in the use of modern contraceptive methods from 26 percent in 1996 to 43 percent in 2011. Objectives of the is to assess the knowledge, attitude regarding family planning and the practice of contraceptives among the married women of Dhabi VDC of Eastern Nepal. A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was done in Dhabi VDC. Total of 300 married women age 15-49 sample were taken from family planning center situated in Dhabi. Knowledge, attitude and practice on contraceptives were evaluated with the help of a predesigned questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was done by using SPSS 11.5 software to obtain frequencies and percentages. Out of 300 interviewed women, the mean age was 27.94 years, 98% had heard about Family planning method. Radio was the main Source of family planning information. Regarding the usage of contraceptive methods, about 79.3% had ever used and 63.3 had current using some sort of contraception, among the method used Injectables were the commonly used methods About 71% of married women other child in the further. Despite the knowledge of all family planning methods majority of the women used Injectables. Easily accessible and easily to use were the main reasons for choosing Injectables methods. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nirmeen Rifat Khan ◽  
Sadia Jerifa

This was a descriptive cross-sectional type of study conducted with an aim to find out the prevalence of contraceptive use among married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) in a rural area of Sreepur upazilla under Gazipur district. The study was conducted from February 2012 to June 2012. Out of 265 respondents, majority (27.17%) were found between the age group of 20-24 years where mean age was 28.12 years with SD of ±7.881 years. Among all the respondents 97.7% were Muslims. Maximum number of respondents (28.7%) were educated up to secondary school level but most of them (84.5%) were housewives. Majority (34%) of their husbands were service holders and businessmen each, 29.4% had monthly family income of 5,001-10,000/- Tk. This lower middle class comprised the highest group in our study. Among 265 respondents, 62.3% were using contraceptive methods at the time of study and rest 37.7% were not using due to some different reasons, such as pregnancy, breast feeding, eagerness to take child etc. Maximum couple (81.9%) took decision combindly to adopt contraceptive methods and most of them (69.8%) lived in a nuclear family. Majority (62.63%) had 1 to 2 children. Mostly used contraceptive method among ever users (81.69%) and current users (60%) was oral contraceptive pill. Majority (45.28%) mentioned no side effect from any of the methods. Relatives and neighbors were the highest informer (33.96%) than the family planning workers (20.75%) and even mass media (7.54%). In this study the prevalence of contraceptive use was found 62.3%. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jdmc.v23i1.22686 J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 23, No.1, April, 2014, Page 7-13


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabamallika Dehingia ◽  
Anvita Dixit ◽  
Sarah Averbach ◽  
Vikas Choudhry ◽  
Arnab Dey ◽  
...  

Abstract Background We examine the association between the quality of family planning (FP) counseling received in past 24 months, and current modern contraceptive use, initiation, and continuation, among a sample of women in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. Methods This study included data from a longitudinal study with two rounds of representative household survey (2014 and 2016), with currently married women of age 15–49 years; the analysis excluded women who were already using a permanent method of contraceptive during the first round of survey and who reported discontinuation because they wanted to be pregnant (N = 1398). We measured quality of FP counseling using four items on whether women were informed of advantages and disadvantages of different methods, were told of method(s) that are appropriate for them, whether their questions were answered, and whether they perceived the counseling to be helpful. Positive responses to every item was categorized as higher quality counseling, vs lower quality counseling for positive response to less than four items. Outcome variables included modern contraceptive use during the second round of survey, and a variable categorizing women based on their contraceptive use behavior during the two rounds: continued-users, new-users, discontinued-users, and non-users. Results Around 22% had received any FP counseling; only 4% received higher-quality counseling. Those who received lower-quality FP counseling had 2.42x the odds of reporting current use of any modern contraceptive method (95% CI: 1.56–3.76), and those who received higher quality FP counseling at 4.14x the odds of reporting modern contraceptive use (95% CI: 1.72–9.99), as compared to women reporting no FP counseling. Women receiving higher-quality counseling also had higher likelihood of continued use (ARRR 5.93; 95% CI: 1.97–17.83), as well as new use or initiation (ARRR: 4.2; 95% CI: 1.44–12.35) of modern contraceptives. Receipt of lower-quality counseling also showed statistically significant associations with continued and new use of modern contraceptives, but the effect sizes were smaller than those for higher-quality counseling. Conclusions Findings suggest the value of FP counseling. With a patient-centered approach to counseling, continued use of modern contraceptives can be supported among married women of reproductive age. Unfortunately, FP counseling, particularly higher-quality FP counseling remains rare.


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