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. 2018 Jul 24;37(1):19.
doi: 10.1186/s41043-018-0150-4.

Maternal health care visits as predictors of contraceptive use among childbearing women in a medically underserved state in Nigeria

Anthony Idowu Ajayi  1 , Oladele Vincent Adeniyi  2 , Wilson Akpan  3
Affiliations

Maternal health care visits as predictors of contraceptive use among childbearing women in a medically underserved state in Nigeria

Anthony Idowu Ajayi et al. J Health Popul Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: Health care visits during pregnancy, childbirth and after childbirth may be crucial in expanding the uptake of contraceptive care in resource-poor settings. However, little is known about how health care visits influence the uptake of modern contraception in Nigeria. The focus of this paper was to examine how health care visits influence the use of contraceptives among parous women in a medically underserved setting.

Methods: The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Data was collected from 411 women who gave birth between 2010 and 2015 selected through a two-stage cluster random sampling technique. Health care visits for antenatal care services, childbirth, postnatal care and modern contraceptive were dichotomised (yes, no). Descriptive analyses were performed, and percentages, frequencies and means were reported. Multiple logistic regressions were computed, and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

Results: Knowledge of all contraceptive methods was lowest among women who reside in rural areas. Health care visits for antenatal care (UOR 4.5; 95% CI 2.0-10.5), childbirth (UOR2.1; 95% CI 1.4-3.2) and postnatal care services (UOR 2.3; 95% CI 1.5-3.5) independently predict ever use of any contraceptive methods. Likewise, health care visits for antenatal care (UOR 5.6; 95% CI 2.1-14.8), childbirth (UOR 2.3; 95% CI 1.5-3.6) and postnatal care services (UOR 2.8; 95% CI 1.8-4.5) were independent predictors of current use of modern contraceptive methods. In the adjusted model, health care visits for antenatal care services (AOR 3.2; 95% CI 1.1-8.8) were significantly associated with the use of modern contraceptive methods.

Conclusion: Health care visits significantly predict the use of modern contraceptive methods. Expanding access to health care services would potentially increase contraceptive use among childbearing women in the medically underserved settings.

Keywords: Contraceptive; Family planning; Health care visits; Knowledge of contraceptives; Medically underserved settings; Modern contraceptive; Nigeria.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

AIA is a research fellow at the University of Fort Hare. OVA is a family physician and the acting head of accident and emergency unit at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital. WA is a professor of Environmental Sociology at the University of Fort Hare.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The University of Fort Hare Ethical Review Committee and Ondo State Ministry of Health Ethical Review committee reviewed and approved the study protocol. All participants gave their consent to participate in the study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

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