Determinants of Long acting reversible contraception utilization among women of reproductive age in Uganda

Abstract

The study examined the determinants of long acting reversible contraception (Implants and IUDs) utilization among women aged 15-49 in Uganda. The purpose of the study was to examine relationship between the demographic and socio-economic characteristics and long acting reversible contraception utilization. Data for the study was sourced from the 2016 Uganda Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 Survey comprising of 3816 female respondents aged 15 to 49 years. At the univariate level of analysis, frequencies describing the characteristics of respondents were generated. This was followed by bivariate level analysis using the Pearson Chi-squared tests to show factors associated with the utilization of long acting contraceptives while at the multivariate level, a probit regression model was applied to determine the factors influencing the utilization of long acting contraceptives. The findings revealed that only 5% of the women age15-49 years were long acting reversible contraceptive users. Furthermore, it was found that the demographic and socio-economic characteristics that were significantly associated with long acting reversible contraceptive utilization were age (p=0.000), parity (p=0.000), marital status (p=0.000), region (p=0.001), availability of LARCS (p=0.010) and knowledge of LARCs (p=0.000). On the other hand, education level (p=0.074), place of residence of the woman (p=0.060) were not significantly associated with long acting reversible contraceptive utilization. At the multivariate analysis level, women who had higher parities(Coeff 1.640,CI:1.022-2.257),tertiary education(Coeff 0.471,CI:0.098-0843),no knowledge about LARCs(Coeff 0.110,CI:-0.067-0.286) were more likely to use long acting reversible contraception while women aged 45-49(Coeff,-0.506, CI:-1.004—0.008),those who live in the eastern region(Coeff -0.253,CI:-0.495—0.011) had reduced chances of using long acting reversible contraceptives.The study indicated that the utilization of long acting reversible contraceptives was determined by age, education level, and geographical region among others. This thus study therefore recommends that government should design interventions in a strategic way to cater for regionsthat are less likely to use LARCs may be due to access to information and services challenges.