Factors that influence contraceptive use amongst women in Vanga health district, Democratic Republic of Congo

• Main Authors: Kangale Izale (Author), Indiran Govender (Author), Jean-Pierre L. Fina (Author), John Tumbo (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: AOSIS, 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"><strong>Background:</strong> Contraception is often necessary in order to plan for children and without it there is a risk of unplanned pregnancies. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, this often results in abortions by untrained persons with resultant morbidity and mortality.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"><strong>Aim:</strong> To investigate the factors that influence contraceptive use amongst women of childbearing age in the Vanga health zone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"><strong>Methods:</strong> Cross-sectional survey using interviewer-administered questionnaires.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"><strong>Results:</strong> Of the 384 women recruited, a majority (46.1%) were in the 31-40 year age group;52% had reached primary school and 88% did not have formal employment. One hundredand forty of the participants reported current use of contraception, with 60% of them using modern methods of contraception; 36.1% of them had begun using contraception before the age of 20; and the most common methods were oral contraceptive pills and injection, each accounting for 22.9%. There was variation in the duration of contraceptive use and the main reason for using contraception was to space children. Of the participants, 20.7% had been using contraception for more than two years. Seventy-seven (31.5%) of the women reported they did not use contraception because of a fear of side effects. Forty-four (18%) reported that they are unable to afford contraception, 38 (15.6%) had husbands who disapproved of contraceptive usage, 26 (10.6%) had a fear of infertility, 18 (7.4%) practised a religion that did not allow them to use contraception and 12 of the women (4.9%) did not use contraception because it was unavailable to them.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-justify: inter-ideograph; tab-stops: right dotted 453.5pt;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Barriers to contraception in our study were fears of side effects and infertility, cost, male partner's objection, unavailability of contraception and religious beliefs.</p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>

Item Description

2071-2928
2071-2936