IRAQI JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE

Background: Family planning is considered as an important public health issue because of its association with social and health outcomes for both mothers and children. Although contraceptive use has increased in many developing countries including Iraq, yet differences between urban and rural areas practice of family planning still exists. Objectives: The study aimed to assess the knowledge, practice and attitude of currently married women aged 15-49 years towards family planning methods and to find out the urban/ rural differentials in these aspects; in addition to exploring the factors that could affect the use of these methods, and to determine the unmet need for family planning methods. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted in 8 primary health care centers in Alramadi City in urban and rural areas during the period of November 2011 to February 2012. Structured interviews were performed with 537 currently married women attending primary health care centers, selected through a systematic random sampling method. Results: The results showed that knowledge of contraceptives among the respondents is high, with 97% of women being aware of at least one method of contraceptive. The respondents showed a positive attitude towards family planning which was more marked among urban women. Around 54% of all women were practicing at least one type of family planning at the time the study was conducted. Significant difference was noticed in practicing family planning between urban and rural areas (61.3% & 44.5% respectively). The use of modern types was observed more significantly among urban women (42.9%) compared to rural women (30.4%). The use of family planning methods was significantly associated with younger age, higher education, high parity, and living in an urban area. The most popular method used among modern contraceptives was oral pills followed by intrauterine device both in urban and rural areas, injections were used significantly higher among rural than urban women. while among the traditional methods used, withdrawal was the main method. Regarding the reasons for non use, results showed that half (50%) of women in rural areas want to have more children compared to one third (33.3%) in urban areas. The overall unmet need for family planning was 26.6%, reasons included husband objection which was more obvious in rural than in urban areas, religious beliefs in both areas. Medical reasons and fear from side effects were observed as more causes for non use among urban than rural women. Conclusion: Almost all the urban and rural women had good knowledge about family planning methods, though urban women were more aware of the benefits. However, the urban – rural differential in the practice was significantly clear. There is a need to prioritize the family planning program among Primary Health Care Programs with emphasis of women education and counseling of couples to adopt family planning methods.
Key words: KAP, Family Planning, contraception, urban- rural

Background: Unmet need accompanied family planning as a priority and considered as a quality indicator of family planning program, the current study aims to calculate unmet need and to identify the associated sociodemographic & reproductive factors. Subject and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on 1000 currently married women (15-49) of age attending primary health care centers in Al Karkh- Baghdad. Women approached through systematic random sampling during their attendance to primary health care centers, their data were collected via direct interview and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Unmet need was calculated using the new revised algorithm. Results: Nearly one third of the studied sample had begun their reproductive life before reaching the age of 18. More than one forth (28.1%) of women had unmet need for family planning. The main reason for not practicing family planning among women with unmet need was fear of side effects. All sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics showed statistically significant association with unmet need for family planning. Conclusions: There was a high level of unmet need for family planning among currently married women Providing educational attention to family planning regulars might be necessary to lower the unmet need.