Authors:

Abstract

Introduction: High fertility, low contraceptive prevalence and poor maternal indices characterize the reproductive history of women in sub-Sahara Africa. In such populations, unmet need for contraception tend to be high; there is a dearth of evidence about the unmet need for family planning in these settings.

Objectives: To determine and to compare the unmet need, demand and potential demand met for family planning services (FPS) amongst urban and rural women of Bayelsa State in Southern Nigeria

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was used to survey 200 urban and 200 rural currently married or in-union women in April-July 2018. Data were collected using a pretested, structured intervieweradministered questionnaire on unmet need, after written consent was obtained from respondents. Collected data were edited, coded, and entered to IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0.

Results: The proportion of unmet need was 46.5% (n=93) for urban women compared to 57.5% (n=115) for the rural (χ2=4.85; p=0.03). The potential demand for contraception was at 62.5% in the urban and 71.5% for the rural women. The proportion of demand satisfied in the urban areas was 26.4% and 19.6% for the rural women.

Conclusions & Recommendations: This study found differences in the level of demand and potential demand met for FPs leading to high unmet need for family planning, between women in urban and rural areas in Bayelsa State. Thus, efforts still need to be intensified in promoting FP programmes as we see that the improvement in uptake with high unmet need, reflects the needs to be met and the readiness of reproductive age women to space or limit childbearing.

Keywords: Family planning, Unmet need, Demand for family planning, Potential demand met for family planning, Bayelsa State