| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the effects of socio-economic,
demographic and social setting factors on availability,
accessibility and use of contraceptives by currently married
fecund non-pregnant women aged 15-49 years in Kenya.
It utilizes path analysis and multiple regression to
test a series of recursive models that are hypothesized to
explain the variation in the dependent variable in question.
The findings indicate that there are differentials in
knowledge of a family planning outlet for those women who are
currently using inefficient methods of contraception. This
knowledge is shown to be highly depressed by the time a woman
reports it would take her to reach a family planning outlet. The study demonstrates the strong positive effect of
knowledge of a family planning outlet on current use of
efficient methods of contraceptives. It also shows the strong
negative effect of travel time to source on knowledge of a
family planning outlet and its negative effect on current use
of contraceptives.
The study shows that the perceptions of non-users of
efficient methods are realistic as they bear close affinity to
findings of those currently using efficient contraceptive
methods.
The study concludes that the interrelationship between
the background factors, availability, accessiblity and use of
contraceptives bears close resemblance to other findings of
similar studies carried out in other developing countries. It
also concludes that the mode of transport, education and number
of living children are important factors for policy use to
influence knowledge of a family planning outlet and use of
efficient methods of contraceptives. | |
