Prevalence and determinants of unmet need for family planning in Kishanganj district, Bihar, India

A B S T R A C T Background: Unmet need is a valuable indicator for assessing the achievements of national family planning programs. The present study was undertaken with the objectives to determine the magnitude of unmet need for family planning among the married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years), to evaluate the various factors that influence the unmet need and to explore the common reasons for unmet need for family planning. Methods: A community based, cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2012 in Laucha village in Kishanganj, Bihar through multistage sampling. Married women aged 15-49 years, who were permanent residents of the village, were selected by complete enumeration (330 in total) and interviewed through house to house survey with the help of a pre-designed, pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The total unmet need for family planning was 23.9%; 9.4% for spacing births and 14.5% for limiting births. The unmet need varied significantly with age (p < 0.05) and was highest in ≤ 19 years age group (33.7%). It was also significantly higher among illiterates, those with low monthly per capita income, among Muslims and among those having more than two living issues (p < 0.05). Husband’s disapproval (34.2%), lack of awareness (27.8%) and fear of side effects (24.1%) were common reasons behind the unmet need. Conclusion: the unmet need for family planning was quite high among the respondents and associated with various bio-social determinants that should be considered while planning for scaling-up the program.