Contraception use and family planning inequalities among Brazilian women

Abstract

Background: Brazil has shown a considerable decline in fertility rates in recent decades. However, sociodemographic differences still have a direct impact on access to family planning in the country. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of contraceptive use according to sociodemographic variables among Brazilian women in reproductive age. Methods: A crosssectional study conducted with 17,809 women who have responded to the National Health Survey. We estimated the prevalence as well as the 95% confidence intervals and we used Pearson’s chi-square test at a significance level of 5% to analyze differences between groups. Results: More than 80% of the women reported to use some contraception method, the most used method was oral contraceptive (34.2%), followed by surgical (25.9%) and condoms (14.5%). Black/Brown, northerly, and low-educated women are more frequently sterilized, while white women, with higher schooling and those living in the south and southeast are the ones who use oral contraception and double protection the most. Conclusion: Despite the observed improvements, there was no decrease in the prevalence for not using any CM and there are inequalities in access to contraception in the country.