Unmet need for family planning in Pakistan: prevalence and factors influencing unmet need among women of reproductive age.

Abstract

Introduction: Despite government efforts, the contraceptive prevalence rate is low in Pakistan. UMNFP still exists in Pakistan like other low-middle income countries. Our study aims to determine the prevalence and factors affecting the unmet need for family planning in Pakistan.

Methods: The analysis was performed using PDHS 2017-18 data set. In our study, 11847 women of reproductive age were included out of 14498.

Result: In binary logistic regression, age, wealth index, and the number of living children found statistically significant. UMNFP was lower in women of older age (45-49) in contrast to younger women of age between 15-19 years. Regarding the women's socioeconomic status, those who belong to the middle socioeconomic class had a lower UNMFP in contrast to the poorest. UMNFP was 1.7 times more in women having more than three children in contrast to women who had less than or equal to three children. However, women's age, women socioeconomic status, and working status of women were found to be statistically significant with an unmet need for spacing in the multinomial model. In addition, the age of women, region, number of living children, socioeconomic status, and knowledge of family planning was found to be statistically significant with an unmet need for limiting.

Conclusion: In the light of our study, overall unmet need is lower in older age and richer wealth quintile while UNMFP is high in women who had more than three children. Policymakers should design interventions to target high-risk populations to overcome the issue of rapid population growth.