Factors Affecting Family Planning Information Utilization by Rural Households: The Case of Dugda Woreda, East Shewa, Ethiopia

Abstract

High fertility and rapid population growth have an impact on the overall socio-economic development of a country in general and maternal and child health in particular. Ethiopia is among the developing countries where the rate of population growth is one of the highest and contraceptive prevalence rate is the lowest. The practice of family planning and its possible determinants have hardly been explored in rural parts of the country. Thus, the objectives of the study were to assess the level of family planning information utilization by the rural households in the study area and to identify factors that determine the utilization of family planning information (FPI). The study was conducted in Dugda Woreda, East Shewa Zone of Central Ethiopia where the population growth rate (2.8) is more than the national average (2.6). Dugda Woreda was purposively selected and a total of 120 sample couples were randomly selected from 4 kebeles, and interview schedule was used to collect primary data. Focus groups’ discussions were held to support the survey data. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and binary logit model. From the total sampled couples, 46.6% were users of family planning at the time of the survey while the remaining 53.3% were non users. The result of binary logistic regression model analysis showed that among the 17 explanatory variables entered into the model, nine of them were found to be significant at less than 10% probability level. Targeting the identified factors, and making policy and development interventions can promote the level of utilization of family planning among rural women in the study area. Therefore, policy makers and family planning service providers should give attention to factors that significantly influence family planning information utilization through emphasizing women education, health counseling, making suitable timing and duration of mass media programs.

Keywords: family planning, determinants, Dugda woreda, rural households