Knowledge, availability and use of contraceptives in Kenya

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.