Access, Quality of Family Planning Service, and Unmet Need: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) is one of the current critical FP and reproductive health issues. It makes contraceptive use difficult to increase. This may cause population explosion and will have a continuous impact on life. The direct impact of unmet need for FP is the occurrence of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. Previous studies showed that good access and quality of service have an important role to overcome the unmet need. It helps to ensure the continuous use of contraceptives. This study aimed to systematically review the access, quality of service, and unmet need of the FP program. Subjects and Method: A systematic review was carried out by searching articles from 4 online databases, namely PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and JSTOR. The materials under review were free full text articles published from 2009 to 2019. After a journal was obtained, the journal was selected according to PICO. The researchers read the titles and abstracts of each journal. Results: A total of 12 articles were selected to be reviewed in this study. Access and quality of FP services were important determinants of unmet need events. Effective intervention to reduce the incidence of unmet need can be done through access and quality service approaches. It included providing mobile service facilities, utilizing the geo-coordinate capacity of households and health facilities utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, and friendly services. Service outreach must be provided according to the request from the community, subject to availability of medicines and contraceptive supplies. Conclusion: Unmet need for FP can be overcome by providing mobile service facilities and utilizing GIS and GPS technology. Competence officers must be available to manage community needs.