Determinants of the use of modern contraceptives among women of reproductive age group in Ethiopia: A multi-level mixed effects analysis

by Molalign Gualu Gobena, Maru Zewdu Kassie

Modern contraceptive methods are a scientifically effective method to control the fertility of reproductive-aged groups of people. The women’s use of contraceptive methods creates a birth gap and limits the number of their children. The main objective of this study is to identify the significant determinant of modern contraceptive use of reproductive-aged women in Ethiopia.

We used data from 2019 Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey. This data was multi-level, taking into account factors at the individual and community levels. In order to capture the multi-level structure of this data and make more reliable and broadly applicable conclusions about the variables influencing the use of modern contraceptives at the individual and community levels, we employed a two-level mixed-effects logistic regression model. In addition, we used cross-tabulation analysis to know the percentage of modern contraception users (reproductive-aged women) across their socio-economic, demographic, and health characteristics. A total of 8196 reproductive aged (15–49) women were included in this study.

From a total of 8196 reproductive-aged women, 2495(30.4%) were using modern contraceptive method and the rest 5701(69.6%) did not use any modern contraceptive methods. Among 2495 contraceptive users, 1657 (67.3%) used injections and 533 (21.7%) used implants/Norplant. At a 5% level of significance, the result from the two-level binary logistic regression model revealed that the predictors; Age of women, education level, religion, wealth index, knowledge of modern contraception method, number of died children, number of living children, family size, total children ever born and contextual region have significant effect on the use of modern contraception method.

Reproductive-aged women in Ethiopia with more living children, residing in urban/agrarian region, younger, wealthier, married, and more educated, were more likely to be modern contraceptive users. The concerned bodies in Ethiopia should bring forward the intervention strategy and should expand the existed programs to improve the use of modern contraception methods among reproductive-aged women in Ethiopia. Especially, they should give special attention to reproductive-aged women of less income, resident in pastoralist region, less educated, unmarried, and haven’t living child.