A preliminary report on the effect of age and parity on crude insertion rates of IUD in Pakistan.

A total of 1.6 million IUDs were inserted from July 1 1965 to June 30 1968 in Pakistan. 41% were in East and 59% were in West Pakistan. Of these 50% later increasing to 70% were reported on proper clinical record cards (CRC) containing 20 items of information. Proportion of insertions lost to mortality and aging of the woman beyond 49 years was 2.1% in East and 2.8% in West Pakistan. Total attrition was 14800 in East and 25691 in West Pakistan. By the end of the first 3 years of the countrys family planning program 8.5% of eligible women in East and 14.1% in West Pakistan had IUDs inserted. The high rate in West Pakistan may be due to a tendency of high parity women to understate their age. In East Pakistan insertion rate increased with age in all groups while in West Pakistan this was true only in the less than 30-years-of-age group. Women with 4 or more children had higher insertion rates except in the 35-39 age group. Women with 3 children had higher insertion rates than women with 1 or 2 except for ages 35-49 in East and ages 30-49 in West Pakistan. Women with 1 or 2 children in age group 15-29 years in East Pakistan had lower insertion rates than women aged 35-49 but in West Pakistan the rates were similar. The highest insertion rate was for women age 30-34 and parity 4 and above. Next highest was age 30-34 and parity 3. However in West Pakistan the second highest rate was women age 15-29 with parity 4 and above.