Determinants of unintended pregnancy among ever married women in Kenya
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Date
2011Author
Murage, Joseph M
Type
ThesisLanguage
en_USMetadata
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Despite increase in contraceptive prevalence and decline in total fertility rate, ever married women in Kenyan still experience unintended pregnancy. It is essential to identify the [ determinants of unintended pregnancy to facilitate policy makers and program managers to design programs and services especially for women who have the highest likelihood of having unintended pregnancy. This study therefore seeks to establish factors that influenced ever married women in Kenya to classify their pregnancy as unintended. Using data from the 2008-09 KDHS, a total of 5,696 live births were used as unit for analysis and attached to their mother's demographic, socio-economic, socio-cultural, access to family planning information/services.
Bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to establish the relationship between selected independent variables and unintended pregnancy. The independent variables included, age, age at first marriage, number of living children, level of education, wealth index, type of place of residence, region, religion, husband desire for children, heard FP on radio last month and visited by FP worker last 12 months. The intervening variable was ever use of modem contraception while the dependent variable was unintended pregnancy.
The study findings showed that age, number of living children, level of education, wealth index, region, religion, husband desire for children, visited by FP worker last 12 months and ever use of modem contraception significantly influenced the likelihood of unintended pregnancy.
The high likelihood of unintended pregnancy among ever married women who have ever used contraceptive method indicates the need for improving family planning services to avoid failure and discontinuation. Access to family planning information through media failed to show significance influence on unintended pregnancy, an indication for the need of improved strategies to provide such information especially on family planning services.
Publisher
University of Nairobi, Kenya