Causal Factors of Unmet Need for Family Planning in Pakistan

Abstract

Family planning is an important instrument to control population and to bring improvement in mother as well as child health. The government has been unceasingly trying to increase the availability of contraceptives facilities but still unmet need for family planning (UMNFP) exists in Pakistan. Women are said to have UMNFP if they want to limit or space child bearing, but are not using any contraception methods due to any reason. According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-18, the existence of UMNFP is 17.3% in Pakistan. The aim of this study is to scrutinize the determinants of UMNFP in Pakistan. The household dataset of PDHS 2017-18 is utilized for analysis. Results show that older women are less probable to have UMNFP as compared to younger women. Uneducated women are less likely to have UMNFP as compare to educated women. The likelihood of UMNFP is higher among women who are unemployed than those who are employed. Those women who belong to richer wealth quintile are less probable to have UMNFP. In contract, those women who belong to poorer wealth quintile are more likely to have UMNFP than those women who belong to poorest wealth quintile. Those women who have availability of contraceptives are less likely to have UMNFP than those women who have no availability of contraceptives. Similarly, those women who have made decision regarding contraceptives use are less probable to have UMNFP than those women whose husband have made decision regarding contraceptives use.