Assessment on determinants of contraceptive morbidity in Northeast India

Abstract

Introduction: With the increase in widening role of women, need for family planning and contraceptive use is ever increasing. Healthy reproductive and sexual health for many women is still a dream in Northeast India. Bulk of women are unaware about morbidity associated with the contraceptive use as the service providers usually do not provide information on side-effects to the user thus women suffer silently, which ultimately may lead to severe health consequences. Objectives: Present study aims to understand the pattern of contraceptive use and morbidity associated with it. Methods: Present study uses District Level Household and Facility Survey 2012-2013 (DLHS-4) data of seven North-eastern states of India. Only the currently married women (CMW) who are usual resident and not pregnant are retained. Hence a sample of 30,670 CMW are kept for assessing contraceptive use, subsequently 7,825 CMW are filtered for understanding contraceptive morbidity. Statistical technique like Cramer's V and Phi test, and logistic regression are used for the analysis. Results: Result shows that the percentage of using modern contraceptive method was highest in Sikkim and lowest in Meghalaya. Key findings of the present study are that women with higher parity, having information about side effects and belonging to non-tribal community are more likely to report having contraceptive morbidity, whereas it is opposite for the users of modern spacing methods Conclusion: Higher parity women in particular should be provided information about proper use and side-effects of modern contraceptives, so that they can make an informed choice of contraception and lead a healthy life.