Abstract:
Introduction: About one third of unintended pregnancies occur among women
accessing contraception. Many of whom are using short-term methods that require user
adherence on a daily or quarterly basis. One of the strategies for the prevention of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV is prevention of unintended pregnancies among
HIV-positive women. However, studies conducted on demand for long acting
contraceptive methods in this particular group of people is scarce and unavailable.
Objective: To assess demand for long acting contraceptive methods and associated
factors among currently married reproductive age women attending care in ART clinic in
public health institutions at Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia.
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 654
systematically selected reproductive age women attending care in ART clinic at Bahir
Dar city from March to April, 2014. A structured and pretested interviewer administered
questionnaire was used to collect data. EPI info version 3.5.3 for data entry and SPSS
version 16 for analysis was used. Both bivariate and multivariable analyses were
employed. In multivariable analysis p-value less than 0.05 was considered as a
statistical significant and odds ratio with 95% CI was used to assess the presence and
strength of association.
Results: About 656 respondents were participated in the study with 99.4% response
rate. Among these two questionnaires were incomplete and were excluded. The mean
age of the study participants was 31.67 and SD +5.46. The demand for long acting
contraceptive methods was 36.7% (95% CI: 33.2, 40.6). Being urban resident [AOR=
3.05, 95% CI: 1.34, 6.89], having elementary educational level [AOR = 2.31, 95% CI:
1.34, 3.99], having four or more alive children [AOR= 3.86, 95% CI: 1.62, 9.20], want to
give birth after two year [AOR = 5.68, 95% CI: 3.05, 11.58], want no more child [AOR =
7.78, 95% CI: 4.15, 14.58] and having past experience to LACMs [AOR = 6.35, 95% CI:
4.09, 9.87] were positively associated while myths heard about LACMs [AOR = 0.45,
95% CI: 0.29, 0.68] and having information on the availability of PMTCT services [AOR=
0.46 95% CI: 0.24, 0.89] were negatively associated with the demand for LACMs.
Conclusion and recommendations: Demand for LACMs in this study was low. Myths
about LACMs were common in the community and are the major barriers for the
promotion and utilization of the methods. So it is important to do a lot on demand
creation on LACMs and bring attitudinal change related to myths through provision of
information, education and communication.
