Prevalence of Contraceptive Methods among Eligible Couples in an Urban Area of Chennai - A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Rapid population expansion is putting a strain on many developing countries' resources, especially in India. Optimal fertility management enables women and men to avoid and achieve conception and parenthood when desired. India launched officially Family Planning Programme way back in 1952 to address these issues, yet its goals were far from achieving facing stern obstacles in many forms. Surveys and studies by individual authors to find out the prevalence of contraceptive use and their determinants have been conducted in various parts of India. However, the contraceptive prevalence is not uniform across India. The aim of the study is to estimating the prevalence of contraception usage among eligible couples and to assess the factors associated with contraception usage.

Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among married eligible couples living in the urban area named Semencheri in Chennai. It was carried out for a period of 4 months from 2ndApril to 5th of July 2019. The study population consisted of eligible married couples with female partner of age between 15 to 49yrs of age married for at least 2 year, and having minimum one child, Based on the results of a pilot study the sample size was calculated and estimated to be 120, structured questionnaire was used to collect data.

Results: The prevalence of contraception was only 63.3% though 92.5% of couples studied were aware of the contraceptive methods, the factors like education of either of the couple and mode of delivery of the previous child were significantly associated with contraception usage.

Conclusion: Even though the use of contraception has increased among couples, still there is an unmet need for contraception, in spite of increased education qualification and knowledge about contraceptive methods.