Contraceptive behavior among ever-married reproductive age women in the estate sector in the district of Ratnapura, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Background: Modern family planning (FP) methods remain the most effective means of reducing unmet need and its consequences including unplanned pregnancies. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the contraceptive practice and unmet need for FP among 15–49-year-old ever-married women in estate sector in Ratnapura district. Materials and Methods: A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using interviewer-administered questionnaire to assess contraceptive behavior among 15–49-year-old ever-married women in estate sector. Results: Contraceptive prevalence for the study group (n = 818) was 67.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 64.5–71.5) with the prevalence of 65.4% (95% CI 62.0–68.7) for modern methods and 2.3% (95% CI 1.5–3.4) for natural and traditional methods. The prevalence individual methods were 22.75% for female sterilization, 14.91% for injectables, 14.06% for oral contraceptives, 6.36% for intrauterine devices, 5.38% for subdermal implants, 1.85% for condoms, and 0.01% male sterilization. The prevalence of unmet need for FP was 16.3% (95% CI 13.8–18.7) (n = 133) while that for spacing was 6.6% (95% CI 5.4–7.8) (n = 53) and for limiting was 9.7 (95% CI 8.2–11.2) (n = 80). Unmet need for modern methods was 18.8% (95% CI 15.9–21.3) (n = 152). Reasons for unmet need were infrequent sex (21.5%), fear of side effects (18.6%), and low perceived risk of pregnancy (16.6%). Conclusions: Although contraceptive prevalence is high in estates, existence of high level of unmet need with reasons related to lack of awareness indicates the need of intervention studies to reduce unmet need and its consequences.