Contraceptive Use and Method Choice in Urban Slum of Bangladesh

Background: The population of urban areas has been increasing in an alarming rate. The people of urban slums increased faster than non-slum areas over the decades. At present more than one-third of the urban people are slum dwellers in Bangladesh. Objectives: The study aims to investigate the factors affecting contraceptive use and method choice among women living in the urban slums in Bangladesh. It also aims to examine the source of modern method collection among them. Data and methods: The study used a sample weight of 5160 currently married women of reproductive age taking data from the nationally representative 2006 Bangladesh Urban Health Survey. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses have been applied to investigate the relationship between a set of socioeconomic and demographic factors and the dependent variables ‘current use of contraceptives’ and ‘method choice’. Results: Overall, the contraceptive prevalence rate was 58.1%. 53.2% of the women were modern method users. Oral pill was the most preferred modern method. Use of condom and male sterilization was very low. More than half of the women (54.0%) bought non-clinical modern methods from pharmacy or shop. The multivariate regression analyses reveal that age, access to TV, number of times married, NGO membership, working status, number of living children and child mortality and wealth index are important determinants of contraceptive use and method choice. Sex combinations of surviving children and women’s education were the most important significant determinants of family planning method use and method choice. Conclusion: Despite being the poor, the contraceptive use rate was higher among the urban slum dwellers. The method mix was highly skewed towards female methods. Husbands should be inspired to involve in family planning. Efforts should me made to be more educated the urban poor. Programmes should be strengthened to provide non-clinical modern methods free of cost among them. Door-step delivery services of modern contraceptive methods may raise further the use rate of modern methods among slum dwellers in Bangladesh.