Awareness, Use, and Unmet Need for Family Planning in Rural Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Access to quality reproductive health and family planning services remain poor in Nigeria. We present results on family planning awareness and use from a survey of 3,080 women (age 15-49 years) in Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, and Zamfara States. About 43.0% had heard of any method of contraception whereas 36.6% had heard of any modern method. Overall, 7.0% of all currently married women reported ever using a method of contraception; 4.4% used a modern method and 2.9% used a traditional method. Only 1.3% of women in union (currently married or cohabiting) used modern contraception methods at the time of the survey; 1.3% of women in union used traditional methods. Unmet need for family planning was 10.3%. Low family planning use in the presence of low awareness and low felt need suggests, among other things, a need to increase awareness and uptake and make family planning commodities available.

Keywords: contraception; family planning; fertility; maternal health; Nigeria

(Afr J Reprod Health 2013; 17[4]: 107-117)