Determinants of contraceptive use among married women residing in rural areas of Belgaum

Today the world population is around 7 billion and India harbours 1.2 billion. One of the reasons for uncontrolled growth of the population is unregulated fertility. Unregulated fertility many a times leads to unintended pregnancies leading to many unwanted or mistimed births. It is important to know the determinants of contraceptive use among married women. This cross sectional study was conducted from May 2008-May 2009, involving 2106 married women from rural area of Belgaum. Chi square test was used for statistical analysis. Prevalence of contraceptive use was 59.92%, among which 14.25% practiced temporary methods. In our study, important determinants of contraceptive use were age of married women, socio-economic status, type of family, age at first pregnancy, duration of married life, total number of children (p<0.05). Religion, education of both spouses, age at marriage were not associated with contraceptive use with (p>0.05). We conclude that it is mainly the number of children that decides the use of family planning methods.