Prevalence and predictors associated with modern contraceptive method utilization among women in the nomadic community of Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

TL;DR

This study finds that only 10% of nomadic women in Ethiopia use modern contraceptives, with factors like husband's education and wealth influencing usage.

Contribution

The study provides the first detailed analysis of contraceptive use and its predictors among Ethiopia's nomadic women.

Findings

Modern contraceptive use among nomadic women in Ethiopia is 10%, with injections being the most common method.

Husbands' education, household wealth, and public health delivery are significant predictors of contraceptive use.

Women in Afar and Benshangul-Gumuz regions have higher contraceptive use compared to those in the Somali region.

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the lowest prevalence of the use of modern contraceptive methods. On the frequency and determinants of modern contraceptive method in the Ethiopian women who live a nomadic lifestyle, there is, however, scant research. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors that influence how often women in Ethiopia’s nomadic tribes use modern contraceptive method.

In the nomadic community of Ethiopia, a community-based retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out between January 18 and June 27, 2016. From the 15,683 nationally representative datasets on the 2016 Ethiopian Demography and Health Survey, a sample of 3,415 women from nomadic communities was chosen. To determine factors linked to modern contraceptive method usage within the nomadic group, a multivariable logistic regression model analysis was considered.

In the nomadic population of Ethiopia, 10% (95% CI (9.10, 11.1)) of respondents reported using modern contraceptive method overall. The most popular way to use modern contraceptive method was through injection (73.5%). In the multivariable logistic regression model analysis, secondary and above-educated husbands (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI (1.01, 2.24)) and primarily educated husbands (AOR = 1.4, 95% CI (1.027, 2.0)), rich (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI (1.03, 2.74)) and middle wealth index (AOR = 1.58, 95% CI (1.25, 2.38)), public health place of delivery (AOR = 2.5, 95% CI (1.55, 3.0)), being a working husband (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI (1.96, 4.22)), and respondents working (AOR = 1.5, 95% CI (1.04, 1.79)) were positively critical risk predictors associated with modern contraceptive method usages. Compared to the Somali region, women living in the Afar (AOR = 2.58, 95% CI (1.68, 3.95)) and Benshangul-Gumuz (AOR = 3.40, 95% CI (2.22, 5.21)) regions had higher use of modern contraceptive method.

In Ethiopia, modern contraceptive method usage is still quite uncommon among women who live in nomadic communities. Therefore, in order to increase modern contraceptive method service utilization and improve the wealth index of households, two key strategies, government professionals and concerned body service providers should pay special attention to educational opportunities for husbands and give valuable and effective counseling information during child delivery for women.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40834-024-00272-0.

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