Peer-reviewed article
Socio-demographic determinants of unmet need for family planning among married women in Pakistan.
Muhammad Farhan Asif, Zahid Pervaiz ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzes data from Pakistan's 2012-13 Demographic and Health Survey to identify socio-demographic factors associated with unmet need for family planning among married women. The research uses logistic regression to examine how age, education, wealth, rural/urban residence, media exposure, employment, and fear of contraceptive side effects relate to unmet family planning need. The study finds that fear of side effects is the major barrier to family planning use in Pakistan, and that government media campaigns have been insufficient to address public concerns.
Key points
- Unmet need for family planning prevalence was 21% in Pakistan according to the 2012-13 survey
- Unmet need decreases with increases in women's age, education, household wealth, number of living children, and husband's education
- Rural women are more likely to have unmet need compared to urban women
- Fear of contraceptive side effects is identified as the major cause of unmet need for family planning
- Lack of mass media exposure and lack of employment increase likelihood of unmet need
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional analysis of survey data that identifies associations but cannot establish causation. The study does not evaluate any intervention or provide evidence about what might effectively address unmet need for family planning.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Family planning is considered as an effective tool to control population and to bring improvement in maternal and child health. The Government of Pakistan has been continuously struggling to improve the availability of family planning services. However, like many other developing countries of the world, unmet need for family planning still exists in the country. According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13, the prevalence of unmet need for family planning is 21% in the country. The objective of this study is to investigate the determinants of unmet need for family planning among married women in Pakistan. METHODS: Secondary data of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13 has been used to analyze the determinants of unmet need for family planning through Binary and Multinomial Logistic regressions. RESULTS: Outcomes of the study show that the likelihood of unmet need for family planning among married women in Pakistan goes on to decrease with an increase in their age and education. The likelihood of unmet need for family planning decreases with the increase in wealth status of women's household, number of living children and husband's education. Similarly, the women residing in rural areas are more likely to have unmet need for family planning as compared with women living in urban areas. The women who lack mass media exposure, who are not employed and who have fear of side effects for using contraceptives are more likely to have unmet need for family planning. CONCLUSIONS: Fear of side effects for using contraceptives has been identified as the major cause of unmet need for family planning in Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan has been putting a lot of efforts to convince people about the usefulness of population control programs. A huge media campaign has been launched to persuade people about the benefits of birth control. But the efforts of the government do not seem to be very much effective to clear the perception of people about side effects of contraceptive use. Hence, fear of side effects still remains one of the most important reason behind unmet need for family planning.