Association between Sociodemographic and Economic Factors and Autonomy of Current Contraceptive Users in Bhutan

Abstract

Family planning is an important issue for many developing countries worldwide, including South Asia. Fertility and contraceptive use in developing countries are associated with various markers of socioeconomic status, most prominent of which is women's education. Contraceptive use plays a significant role in controlling fertility, particularly in reaching the replacement level of fertility. Similarly, Bhutan is going through a drastic decrease in total fertility rate and higher contraceptive prevalence rate than average of south east asian region. This study seeks to understand the determinants of socioeconomic factors and contraceptive decision based autonomy. A total of 299 female participants who were married and current contraceptive users were interviewed with informed consent prior to data collection. For analysis of the data, SPSS was used. In this study, it was found that from the socio economic factors education was found to be significantly associated. However the association was a direct relation between education level and fertility rate contrary to usual inverse relationship. This can be understood through the health system lens of Bhutan which provides free access and frequent monitoring of contraceptive use. Accessibility to resources and awareness levels despite education backgrounds might be assumed as the leading cause of the drastic decreasing fertility trend in Bhutan.