Factors Influencing Contraceptive Use Among Adolescents in rural areas of Ethiopia

Abstract

[한글]

[영문]Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, and also a nation ofyoung people as many other developing countries. The total fertility rate in Ethiopia is 5.4,and many adolescents begin to bear children at very young age causing many pregnancyrelated complication. However, health information on never married adolescents is relativelylimited, and those available are predominantly school based and from urban areas.This study was designed to explore factors influencing the contraceptive use amongadolescents in the rural areas of Ethiopia, thus these factors can be used as resources inplanning and implementation of family planning and reproductive health education to decreasefertility rate and enhance reproductive health of adolescents.This study was based on a baseline survey of Community-Based Family PlanningCapacity Building Project called(KEYFP: Korea-Yonsei-Ethiopia Family Planning project)which was done between May and June, 2009 in 7 randomly selected enumeration areasconducted by Yonsei University, College of Nursing.Among 226 adolescents selected from randomly chosen households, 120(53.1%) werecurrently using or ever used contraceptive methods in the past. Household income(x??=10.08,p=.007), education (x??=15.64, p<.001), and living status(x??=7.96, p=.047) were significantlyassociated with contraceptive use among adolescents while age, gender, the place of residence,religion were not. A total of 94.9% knew at least one contraceptive method. Knowledge and attitude of adolescents were significantly associated with contraceptive use(t=4.42, p<.001 andt=3.86, p<.001 respectively) among adolescents while knowledge and attitude of parents werenot significantly associated with contraceptive use among adolescents(p>.05) except theattitude of mothers(t=-2.52, p=.013). When the correlation between knowledge and attitude of adolescents and parents were tested, only attitude of mothers correlated with the attitude ofadolescents(r=-.310, p=.001). Logistic regression showed participants from household incomebetween 10,000birr($790.00) to 15,000birr($1180.00) tended to practice contraceptives lesswhen compared to participants from household income below 10,000birr ($790.00)(OR: .168,95% CI: 0.053-0.529). The participants tended to practice contraceptives more when theywere more knowledgeable about contraceptive methods and had more positive attitude towardfamily planning(OR 1.241, 95% CI: 1.090-1.413 and OR: 3.551, 95% CI: 1.876-6.720respectively).Based on the findings, strengthened school health programs and community outreachprograms on contraceptive methods and family planning services are needed to reach remoteareas and adolescents who are out of school. These services should consider developing youthfriendlyprograms to increase participation and should also consider sustainability of programs.Also, involving women(mothers) would be beneficial to increase positive attitude ofadolescents and further increase contraceptive use among adolescents.