Study of Unmet Need for Family Planning in Urban Slum Population of Davangere- A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Unmet need for family planning is the gap between women's reproductive intensions and their contraceptive behavior. Good fraction of married women in the reproductive age group would prefer to avoid pregnancy but are not using any form of family planning because of various reasons. Objectives: 1. To find out the magnitude of unmet need for family planning. 2. To find out the determinants of unmet need for the family planning. Materials & Method: This is a community based cross sectional study among married women of reproductive age group residing in slums of urban field practice area of SSIMSRC, Davangere, Karnataka, India. Personal interview method with house to house visit was adopted. Results: Unmet need for family planning was 107(16%), unmet need for spacing was 55(51%) and that for limiting was 52(49%). Mean age of mothers was 31.63±7.2. There was significant association between prevalence of unmet need and literacy, number of children and knowledge of contraceptives. There was no significant association between age, religion, type of family etc. Commonest contraceptive method used was tubectomy, the most common source of information about contraceptives was health workers. Commonest reason for unmet need was found to be lack of knowledge. Conclusion: The high prevalence of unmet need for contraception calls for health education campaigns regarding availability, sources and side effects of contraceptives especially in under-privileged areas like urban slums.