Determine the unmet need for family planning in a hilly area in a state of North India

Abstract

Background: The utilization of family planning services has improved over the decade, but still the SDG’s health target to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services is yet to be achieved, unmet need being one of the imperative component.Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken in the rural field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India, from July 2018 to June 2019. Total sample size calculated was 316. Random sampling was used to select eligible couple to whom a predesigned, pretested, semi-structured and anonymous interview schedule was administered after taking consent.Results: The mean age of the participants was 30.2±6.1 years. The modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) was found to be 67.7% among women of reproductive age group (15-49 years). Male condom (36%), followed by female sterilisation (30%) were the most common methods preferred. Unmet need of family planning was found to be 10.4%.Conclusions: Besides male condoms and female sterilisation, other methods of contraception were adopted by meagre number of women. Though, the unmet need for family planning was lesser in this study, still, efforts are needed to plunge it, for ameliorating the contraceptive prevalence rate. Also, the availability of basket of contraceptive choices in government sector need sheer assiduity.