The Impact of Education and Residence on Current Use of Contraception in Ethiopian Women

BACKGROUND: Maternal and infant mortality is high in Ethiopia. An underlying cause of maternal and infant mortality is unintended pregnancy, which is inversely associated with contraceptive use. Hence, the use of contraception can necessarily be increased to reduce the mortality rate of mother and infant.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine the effect of educational attainment and place of residence on contraceptive use among Ethiopian women of childbearing ages.

METHODS: Data are obtained from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) and total 10 223 women aged 15–49 years are analyzed in this study. Both unadjusted and adjusted multivariate logistic regression models are employed to examine the effect of exposure variables on contraceptive use.

RESULTS: It can be seen that only around 36% of Ethiopian women used any of the contraceptive methods. In the case of contraceptive use, a significantly higher odds is observed for women with secondary or higher education with respect to those who were illiterate (e.g., OR=1.51, 95% CI: 1.19–1.93 after adjusting for total children ever born, number of living children, desire of more children, wealth index, respondent currently working, region and religion; and OR=2.53, 95% CI: 2.05–3.13 for unadjusted model). Urban women had also a significantly higher odds for contraceptive use than their rural counterparts (OR=1.89, 95% CI: 1.42–2.51 by adjusted model for the above confounders, and OR=2.22, 95% CI: 1.81–2.73 by unadjusted model).

CONCLUSION: The findings reveal that both educational improvement and urbanization may increase the use of contraception among women in Ethiopia.