DIFFERENTIALS IN MODERN CONTRACEPTIVE METHOD USE BY FOOD SECURITY STATUS AMONG MARRIED WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN WOLAITA ZONE, SOUTH ETHIOPIA

Mohammed Feyisso 1* , Tefera Belachew 2 , Amanuel Tesfay 2 , Yohannes Addisu 1 1 Department of Public Health, College of Health science and School of Medicine, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia 2 Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia Background: Many poor people in the third world remain reluctant to use modern contraception in spite of massive spending and extensive family-planning promotion. Mostly when they use modern contraceptives, their continuation rates are often low. Addressing the connection between nutrition and reproductive health is critical to ensuring population growth that does not overwhelm world resources. In Ethiopia the connections between population and food security are extraordinarily complex and needs further investigation. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess determinants of modern family planning use with main focus on association between food insecurity and modern contraceptive use. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 15 to 30, 2014 in Soddo Zuria Woreda, South Ethiopia. A total of 651 currently married women of reproductive age group were selected using multistage sampling from 15 randomly selected kebeles. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and descriptively proportion of modern family planning use and other characteristics of respondents’ namely Antenatal care (ANC) follow up and place of delivery of the last child were compared among food secure and food insecure households. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the predictors of modern family planning use including food security status after adjusting for all variables that have p-value <0.20 on bivariate analysis. Results: About 38.6 % of all women were currently using modern contraceptive and it is significantly low among food insecure women (29.7%) compared to those who were food secure (52.0%), P< 0.001. Women from food secure households were nearly twice likely to use modern contraceptive methods (AOR: 1.69 (CI: 1.03, 2.66)). Similarly, those who had antenatal care visit (AOR: 4.56 (CI: 2.45, 7.05)); exposure to media (AOR: 4.92 (CI: 1.84, 13.79)) and those who discussed about contraceptive methods with their partner (AOR: 3.07 (CI: 1.86, 5.22)) were more likely to use modern contraceptive methods. Conversely, women who delivered their last child at home were less likely to use modern contraceptive methods (AOR: 0.08 (CI: 0.03, 0.13)). Conclusions: Food insecurity is one of the determinants of modern contraceptive method use implying that food insecurity should be considered as one of the barrier in designing family planning service and needs special arrangement. The main limitations of this study are possibility of some misclassification of subjects with food security status (since house hold food insecurity access scale measures acute food insecurity) and difficulty of capturing seasonal trends.