Profile of unmet needs of family planning in an urban slum of Ganjam district, Odisha, India: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Unmet need for family planning refers to the percentage of fecund women of reproductive age either married or in union, women who either wish to postpone the next birth (spacers) or who wish to stop child bearing (limiters) but are not using a contraceptive method. This clearly indicates a gap between a woman’s reproductive intention and current contraceptive behaviour. The objectives of the present study was to determine the prevalence of unmet need for family planning, to assess the association between socio-demographic characteristics and unmet need of family planning, to identify the reasons for unmet need.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted from June to August 2018 in Ankuli (UHTC). A total of 188 ever married women in the reproductive age group were selected by simple random sampling.Results: Out of 188 women, 41 (21.8%) had no need for contraception and needs for family planning of 78 (41.5%) women had been met. The prevalence of unmet need for family planning was 36.7% consists of 24 (12.8%)  spacing need and 45 (23.9%)  limiting need. It was found that age, education of women, age at marriage, number of living children, contraceptive knowledge and inter-spousal communication were significantly associated with unmet need for family planning. The most common reason for not using any contraceptive method was fear of side effects (40.6%).Conclusions: The unmet need for family planning was high and in order to reduce the gap, the program should address the above reasons.