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Socioeconomic profile of women with unmet need for family planning

Socioeconomic profile of women with unmet need for family planning

The magnitude of the demand for family planning services also varies across various socioeconomic characteristics. This information is presented in Table 4. There is a distinct difference by place of residence. Unmet need for family planning is substantially higher among rural women than among their urban counterparts (90 percent versus 41 percent), while met need is almost six times higher among urban women than rural women. The vast majority of rural women do not satisfy their unmet need for spacing or limiting (93 percent and 86 percent respectively). At the same time, a relatively lower percent of urban women have their unmet need for spacing and limiting satisfied (44 percent and 38 percent, respectively). Rural women may have a higher prevalence of demand not satisfied compared with urban women because of the limited availability, accessibility, and acceptability of contraception in the rural
community.

Women whose current place of residence is different from their place of birth are considered migrants, while women who have resided continuously in one place from birth are considered nonmigrants. Migrants are further subdivided into four categories: rural-urban, rural-rural, urbanurban, and urban-rural. Unmet need is higher among non-migrants, women who have moved between rural places, and women who have moved from an urban place of residence to a rural place. Unmet need is also relatively higher among visitors. In contrast, the women who are migrants within an urban community and women who have moved out of a rural community to an urban community have a lower unmet need. The non-migrant community is most likely to not have their demand for family planning satisfied, while migrants within an urban setting are most likely to have their demand met.

As evidenced elsewhere, better-educated women have less unmet need than women with little or no education. This could be due to the fact that educated women are better informed about the various methods and their availability and have greater access to family planning. Educated women are also more likely to live in urban areas, which are better served by family planning services. This pattern is evident in Ethiopia as well. The percentage of women with an unmet need for spacing decreases from 53 percent among uneducated women to 27 percent among women with at least secondary education, with the unmet need for limiting falling from 36 percent to 12 percent. Ninety-three percent of women with no education are unable to meet their demand for spacing while 83 percent of uneducated women are unable to meet their demand for limiting.

Differences in total unmet need are not that obvious by religion. Some variation exists in the demand for spacing methods however with Orthodox Christian women most likely to have their demand for spacing satisfied. With regard to ethnicity, total unmet need is highest among the Sidamos and lowest among the Tigraways. The Amharas have the lowest unmet need for spacing, while the Sidamos and Tigraways have the lowest unmet need for limiting. The Sidamos are least likely to be using a method of contraception and hence least likely to have their unmet for spacing and limiting satisfied.

The data in Table 4 also show that there is little difference in total unmet need by employment status. However, unmet need for spacing is lowest among women who are currently working, while the unmet need for limiting is lowest among women who are not working. Women who are not currently working but have been in the past 12 months are slightly less likely than other women to satisfy their need for both spacing and limiting methods.

Unmet need differs with respect to women’s educational level vis-à-vis their husband’s. Women whose educational level is the same as that of their husband’s express the greatest need for family planning services (84 percent). On the other hand, women who are more educated than their husband are most likely to use a method of family planning and hence least likely to have an unmet need. The unmet need for spacing is highest among women who are less educated than their husband, while the unmet need for limiting is highest among women whose education level is the same as that of their husband. This latter group of women is also least likely to have their demand for both spacing and limiting satisfied.

Media exposure exerts a considerable influence on unmet need. Women who are exposed to any one of three media, namely, radio, television, or newspapers, have a lower unmet need for family planning (57 percent) compared with women who have had no media exposure at all (88 percent). Women with media exposure are about four times as likely to use a method of family planning as women with no media exposure. At the same time, women with no media exposure are highly unlikely to have their demand for family planning satisfied (90 percent of demand for spacing is not met and 83 percent of demand for limiting is not met). 

Family planning programs recognize that contact with women either at home or at a health facility is important in addressing questions and concerns about contraceptives and are crucial to the adoption of family planning. As Table 4 shows, women who have been visited by a family planning worker at home and women who visited a health facility and discussed family planning are twice as likely to use contraceptives as women who had not been visited by a family planning fieldworker or women who visited a health facility but did not discuss family planning. Conversely, nine in ten women who have had no contact with a family planning worker at home and who did not visit a health facility are not able to satisfy their demand for family planning.

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