Determinants of contraceptive use among females in Ghana

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the determinants of contraceptive use among females in Ghana. The rate of contraceptive use among females in Ghana is very low. That leads to high fertility, high maternal mortality and high infant mortality in the country. So to improve the overall reproductive health status of women, it is important to encourage contraceptive use among women. This study investigates the effects of some demographic, social programmatic factors on current use of contraceptives among female using data from Ghana Demography and Health Survey 2008. The analysis used include descriptive, cross tabulation and Multivariate statistics method. Findings showed that knowledge of contraception is almost universal among the women. The use of modern and traditional method of contraception is high among all the regions except that of Northern Region. The use of modern method of contraception is very high in Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo, but low in Northern and Western Region. The use of traditional method of contraception is very high in Ashanti and Greater Accra region but less in Northern and Upper West Regions. The findings from the bivariate analysis suggest that all the variables namely age; residence, education, region, religion, employment status and exposure to media had significant effect on contraceptive use. The major findings derived from the study is for policy formulations and appropriate interventions for increasing the level of contraceptive use among females in Ghana as well as to give suggestion for further research on this issue.