Demand for long acting contraceptive methods and associated factors among currently married reproductive age women attending care at ART clinic in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia.

Abstract

Introduction: About one third of unintended pregnancies occur among women accessing contraception. Many of whom are using short-term methods that require user adherence on a daily or quarterly basis. One of the strategies for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is prevention of unintended pregnancies among HIV-positive women. However, studies conducted on demand for long acting contraceptive methods in this particular group of people is scarce and unavailable. Objective: To assess demand for long acting contraceptive methods and associated factors among currently married reproductive age women attending care in ART clinic in public health institutions at Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 654 systematically selected reproductive age women attending care in ART clinic at Bahir Dar city from March to April, 2014. A structured and pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. EPI info version 3.5.3 for data entry and SPSS version 16 for analysis was used. Both bivariate and multivariable analyses were employed. In multivariable analysis p-value less than 0.05 was considered as a statistical significant and odds ratio with 95% CI was used to assess the presence and strength of association. Results: About 656 respondents were participated in the study with 99.4% response rate. Among these two questionnaires were incomplete and were excluded. The mean age of the study participants was 31.67 and SD +5.46. The demand for long acting contraceptive methods was 36.7% (95% CI: 33.2, 40.6). Being urban resident [AOR= 3.05, 95% CI: 1.34, 6.89], having elementary educational level [AOR = 2.31, 95% CI: 1.34, 3.99], having four or more alive children [AOR= 3.86, 95% CI: 1.62, 9.20], want to give birth after two year [AOR = 5.68, 95% CI: 3.05, 11.58], want no more child [AOR = 7.78, 95% CI: 4.15, 14.58] and having past experience to LACMs [AOR = 6.35, 95% CI: 4.09, 9.87] were positively associated while myths heard about LACMs [AOR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.68] and having information on the availability of PMTCT services [AOR= 0.46 95% CI: 0.24, 0.89] were negatively associated with the demand for LACMs. Conclusion and recommendations: Demand for LACMs in this study was low. Myths about LACMs were common in the community and are the major barriers for the promotion and utilization of the methods. So it is important to do a lot on demand creation on LACMs and bring attitudinal change related to myths through provision of information, education and communication.