Impact of socio-demographic factors on the use of contraceptives amongst women in stable marital unions in gwagwalada area council Abuja

The paper focuses on the impact of socio-demographic factors on the use of contraceptives amongst women in stable marital unions in Gwagwalada area council of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by assessing and describing the types of contraceptives methods used, determining the rate of contraceptive use and investigating how socio-demographic factors affect the utilization of contraceptives. Quantitative methods were used to collect data from 383 married women residing in the ten wards that make up Gwagwalada area council, while the in-depth interviewwas the qualitative method used to collect information and data from the healthcare providers. Chi-square was used to test the significance of the variables while logistic regression models were used to assess the extent and impact of these variables.Mean age of respondents sampled was 29.8 years. Current rate of contraceptive use was 33.4%, and the most commonly used modern method was the injectables (15.2%), while the most commonly used traditional method was the withdrawal method (8.6%). From the calculated Chi-square; age, religion, place of residence, education, occupation and income were reported to have a significant relationship with contraceptive use while number of children was reported to be insignificant. Analysis of logistic regression indicates, that religious affiliation of the respondents had the strongest impact on contraceptive use while the place of residence of respondents had the weakest impact. Results of the in-depth interview indicates that quality of information, accessibility, availability, affordability, religion, educational level, residence, income and occupation were reported to determine the use of contraceptives by women in stable marital unions. The study therefore recommends full integration of women empowerment programmes into family planning programmes, organize health education and enlightenment campaigns, while religious leaders need to emphasize the importance of family planning, there is also the need to emphasise the training and re-training of healthcare workersinorder to address the problem of poor quality of information and knowledge. Intervention plans needs to be initiated and put in place to address the problem of stock-outs, low subsidy and availability of all contraceptive types in Gwagwalada area council.