| Abstract |
Background: Unmet need for family planning is an important indicator for assessing the potential demand for family planning services. Currently married women who are not using any method of contraception but who do not want any more children are defined as having an unmet need for limiting and those who are not using contraception but want to wait two or more years before having another child are defined as having an unmet need for spacing. The sum of the unmet need for limiting and the unmet need for spacing is the unmet need for family planning. Materials and Methods: The study was a community based cross sectional study; it was conducted in the rural and urban field practice areas of Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Ever married women in the age group of 15- 49 years were surveyed and their reproductive behaviour was studied. Statistical analysis was done applying the chi- square test. Results: The prevalence of unmet need for FP was 25.9%, with spacing as 6.3% and limiting as 19.6%. The major reasons for unmet need for FP among were 28.1% perceived little risk of pregnancy, 22.9% were not using contraception because they were breast feeding, and 10% were not using contraception because their husband or family opposed it. Women’s Age, caste ,number of living children, poor inter-spouse communication were found to be associated with high unmet need for Family Planning. Conclusion : The study shows that the unmet need was higher among younger, illiterate, muslim women, women from scheduled and backward class and those having three to four living children. Unmet need was also higher among those women who had never discussed family planning with their husbands.
KEYWORDS: Unmet Need; Family Planning, reproductive age group
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