Determinants of Contraceptive Uptake Among Youth in Kenya.

Abstract

The Kenyan government has been promoting modern methods of contraceptives since independence as championed by the health ministry and some collaborative partnerships. In addition, there are lots of strategies/policies and initiatives put forward by the government to promote the use of family planning services. The measures/steps are meant to lower total fertility rates, raise contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) and shrink the unmet family planning needs. Unfortunately, available statistics shows that only 36.4 percent of the Kenyan youth use any/some form of contraception. Apart from being ranked among the counties with high Total Fertility Rates (TFRs), Turkana County was shown to have the least prevalence rate of contraceptive use among youth aged 15-35 years which was mainly associated with the inadequate/lack of access to health information. Based on these, this study explored empirically the determinants of contraceptive uptake in Turkana County using the latest Kenya Demographic and Household Survey of 2014. The binary probit regression model was used in estimation. Significance was tested at one percent, five percent and ten percent levels. Both descriptive and econometrics results were presented in tables. The findings revealed that education, marital status, current residence and gender of the household head were significantly associated with contraceptive uptake. The study therefore suggests the need for the government through the relevant ministry to enhance outreach programmes imparting contraceptive knowledge rather than the general knowledge so as to reverse the trends among the married couples and those young women with primary education levels. Finally, increasing government intervention through provision of incentives like gifts to enhance increased access to family planning services and improved responsiveness through continuous research to the client needs will go a long way to maintain utilization of contraceptive by residents in the urban environment as well.