_____________________________________________________________________________ AbstractThe unmet need for family planning refers to the percentage of all fecund women who are married or living in union and thus are presumed to be sexually active but not using any method of contraception, who either do not want to have any more children or want to postpone their next birth at least by two years or do not know when or if they want another child 1 . Use of appropriate contraceptive method helps the user to avoid unplanned pregnancies, reducing the risk of induced abortion; the number one killer of women in the reproductive age in developing countries 2 . Due to its clandestine nature, most abortions in the developing world are unsafe, resulting in a series of complications, the most disastrous being maternal death. Worldwide, approximately 42 million pregnancies are voluntarily terminated, 22 within the national legal system and 20 outside it. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a woman dies every 8 minutes due to complications of unsafe abortions 3 . Even though induced abortion is criminalized in Sri Lanka except to save the mother's life 4 , about 700 abortions are performed daily 5 , accounting for the second leading cause of maternal deaths in 2006, 2008 and 2010 6 . According to Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2006/7, 17.2% of births in previous 5 years were unplanned or unwanted 7 . It has been revealed that, 73% among 365 abortion seekers had unmet need for family planning 8 . The economic burden of induced abortion is unbearable to the state and the total cost for management of complications of an abortion has been estimated to be 462 US $, of which 79% is spent by government health expenditure 9 .

Background: Correct use of modern contraceptives remains the most effective method of reducing unmet need and avoiding unplanned pregnancies and their consequences. Objective: To determine the contraceptive prevalence, prevalence of unmet need for family planning and its correlates among 15-49-year-old ever married women in the district of Kalutara, Sri Lanka. Method: A community based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of family planning and unmet need for family planning among 1200 ever married females in 15-49 age group, selected by cluster sampling technique. Correlates of unmet need were assessed by case control analysis which included bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Overall contraceptive prevalence was 69.4% (95%CI: 66.1-72.7) with a prevalence of 60.5% (95%CI: 51.9-69.1) for modern methods and 8.9% (95%CI: 3.3-14.5) for natural & traditional methods. Prevalence of unmet need was 9.4 % (95%CI: 7.7-11.1) with 1.5 % (95%CI: 0.79-2.2) for spacing and 7.9% (95%CI: 6.3-9.5) for limiting. Unmet need for modern methods was 18.7% (95%CI: 16.1-20.6). High risk of unmet need was found to be associated significantly with age above 35 years, education below grade 05, unemployment, less frequent sex, not willing to use modern methods in future and lack of counseling services. Conclusions: Although contraceptive prevalence is high in Kalutara district, existence of high prevalence of unmet need and the risk associated with poorly educated, unemployed women in older age groups indicates the need of a specific programme to prevent unwanted pregnancies

Background: Teenage pregnancies are one of the major underlying causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. It prevents girls from achieving their goals in life.

Background: School canteen policy ensures the safety of food consumed within the school premises in order to maintain nutritional status of children and to facilitate active learning. Objective: To evaluate the practice of school canteen policy in Rathnapura district, Sri Lanka Method: An institution based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in all government schools with functioning school canteens in Rathnapura district in Sabaragamuwa province, using a check list and interviewer administered questionnaires by trained health volunteers. Practice of school components of canteen policy was assessed in percentages. Factors associated with better service provision and administration were assessed using chi square test for significance. Results: Among 583 schools in the district, 179 (30.7%) had functioning school canteens, of which 167 participated in the study (93%). Only 9 (5.4%) schools had less than 200 students. 148 (88.6%) had school health clubs and school food committees. All had school development committees. The PHI had inspected 122 (73.9%) schools while only 25 school canteens (15%) had completed the Grading of Food Handling Establishments forms (H 800). Satisfactory levels were seen in relation to environment & building in 57%, hygiene & sanitation in 82.6%, food storage in 24.6%, food handling in 71.3%, availability of food varieties in 79.6%, food safety activities in 35.3% and knowledge of canteen owners in 25.7% of canteens surveyed. Significant association was seen between practice of school canteen policy and type of school being category AB (p=0.003), school zone being Rathnapura (p=0.001), adherence to administrative criteria by the school administration(p=0.000), knowledge level of the canteen owner being satisfactory (p=0.001), issue of H 800 by PHI to school (p=0.002) and availability of school food committee (p=0.001). Conclusions: Overall, the implementation of school canteen policy is not satisfactory within the district with poor contribution by both health and educational sectors.

No abstract