4214 Group 1 Research Proposal

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF POPULATION STUDIES
RESEARCH PROJECT IN DEMOGRAPHY (DEM 4214)
COURSE COORDINATOR : MR A. BANDA

SUPERVISOR : MS. G SONGOLO
TASK : RESEARCH PROPOSAL
GROUP MEMBERS
NAME COMPUTER NUMBER
ADAH BITIAH CHEMBO 2016131946

MUTINTA DIMUNA 2016141616
TOPIC:
EFFECTS OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE TOWARDS CHILD BEARING AMONG WOMEN
OF THE REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN ZAMBIA
INTRODUCTION
The use of contraceptives provides couples and women in general with the ability to prevent,
delay, plan and space pregnancies. Contraception is defined as “the intentional prevention of
conception through the use of various devices, sexual practices, chemicals, drugs, or surgical
procedures” By preventing unintended pregnancy, contraceptive methods help women to avoid
pregnancy and birth-related morbidity and mortality (Hatcher, et al., 1997)
Induced abortion is often an indication of unintended pregnancy which when conducted in an

unsafe manner has got a lot of health implication such as infertility due to tubal infections.
According to (Maston & Cleland, 2003), there is a relationship between levels of contraceptive
use and incidence of abortion. If fertility and its other determinants such as sexual exposure
remain the same, a rise in contraceptive use or in effectiveness of use must lead to a decline in
induced abortions and vice versa.
Unintended pregnancy may further present an unacceptably high health risk for women who
have underlying medical conditions, some of which are exacerbated by pregnancy. Contraceptive
methods help women with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, seizure disorder and
breast cancer, to avoid unplanned pregnancies and to plan for managing their condition if and
when they decide to become pregnant (Kavanaugh & Anderson, 2013).
Contraceptives further helps reduces high risk pregnancies associated with women of certain age
groups such as the very young adolescent women due to the fact their bodies may not be
physically mature enough to handle the stress of pregnancy and childbirth. There are high risks
that are further associated with older women (especially those over the age of 40) because their
bodies may be less able to deal with physical stresses of pregnancy and childbirth (ibid).
Since the 1960’s, family planning programs have helped women around the would avoid over
400 million unwanted pregnancies. While modern methods of family planning may be new to
Africa, child spacing isn’t. Traditionally, intensive breast-feeding of long duration (18-24
months) has been the norm, and in many African countries the prevalence of breast-feeding still
exceeds 90 percent in the immediate post partum period (Leke, 1998).
A variety of modern contraceptive methods are available, both permanent and reversible, long-
acting and short-acting, and methods for women and men. When used properly and consistently,
contraceptives can provide substantial protection against pregnancy. In addition to their
effectiveness in preventing pregnancy, some contraceptives also have substantial non-
contraceptive health benefits such as prevention of certain cancers, HIV/AIDS etc. An example
of some of the methods of contraception available include: injectables, Norplant implants,
Vasectomy, condoms, Cervical cup, etc. (Hatcher, et al., 1997) .
As a way of addressing some of the challenges associated with accessing family planning
services, Zambia committed to increasing the use of modern contraceptives among married
women from
33% in that year to 58% in 2020. To operationalise the commitments made at the London
Summit in 2012, the country developed the Integrated Family Planning Scale-up Plan 2013-2020
(Zambia Statistics Agency, et al., 2019). However, while the government may implement all
such policies and projects, it remains to the individuals to make that decision of whether or not to
have a child; how many children to have; when to have children and importantly whether or not
to use the family planning services available
According to (Bongarts, 1978) theory, contraception is one of the intermediate behavioral factors
influencing childbearing, others being marriage or sexual exposure, abortion, and lactational
postpartum infecundability. It is for this reason that it can be stated that contraception has got a
role in reducing fertility which in turn reduces high population growth rates which are largely the
result of frequent childbearing or high fertility—often corresponding with a large unmet need for
family planning (FP).
This project is aimed at studying the change (negative or positive) which is as a result or
consequence of contraceptive use towards child bearing among women of the reproductive age
in Zambia. Child bearing has many costs associated with it as it such as labour market
participation, children’s health, maternal health, poverty levels etc.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
According to the (World Health Organization, 2019), among the 1.9 billion women of
reproductive age (15-49 years) living in the world in 2019, 1.1 billion had a need for family
planning, that is, they are either current users of contraceptives—842 million used modern
methods of contraception and 80 million used traditional methods—or have an unmet need for
family planning—190 million women in developing countries wanted to avoid pregnancy and
did not use any contraceptive method.
Additionally, the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) 2018 outlined that
contraceptive prevalence rate for currently married women aged 15-49 was at 50% while the
unmet need for family planning for currently married women is at 20%. Further, the demand for
family planning in Zambia has increased from 45% in 1992 to 69% in 2018.
Despite the commitment that was made by Zambia at the London summit in 2012 to increase
contraceptive prevalence through a mix of policy and programmatic initiatives, there was a
decrease in the percent of unmet need from 30% to 20% in 1992 to 2018 which was further
accompanied by an increase in total demand for family planning among currently married
women. The unmarried women of the reproductive age had an even higher unmet need for
contraceptive use.
It can therefore be stated that there are still a lot of challenges being faced by women of the
reproductive age with regards to family planning methods such as limited access to a variety of
contraceptive methods, limited knowledge on the use of some contraceptives, unintended
pregnancies, etc.
RESEARCH QUESTION
What are the effects of the factors associated with contraceptive use among women of the
reproductive age in Zambia?
OBJECTIVES
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
 To determine how contraceptive use affects child bearing among women of the
reproductive age in Zambia
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
 To determine whether socio-economic characteristics of women affect contraceptive use

 To asses to what extent unmet needs affect childbearing among women of the
reproductive age in Zambia.
 To establish whether the number of children and the birth interval has got a bearing on
the use of contraception.
 To identify barriers to the use of contraceptive methods among women of child bearing
age.
METHODOLOGY
The main source of data which will be used in this report is secondary data which is drawn from
the 2018 ZDHS, the sample was designed to provide estimates of the national and provincial
level. The target group is women of the reproductive age (15- 49 years). The data will be
analyzed using STATA/SE 13.0, excel and word. An attempt will be made to make this study as
descriptive as possible. To increase the degree of accuracy, the population of interest (women of
the reproductive age) will be systematically selected using the Stata drop and keep variable
commands.
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE USE OF STATA
 It is user friendly
 It is the most widely accepted software that allows for large data sets
 Research group members has got adequate knowledge of this program
 The software is efficient as it allows for the analysis of numerous variables
LITERATURE REVIEW

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSE COORDINATOR : MR A. BANDA

ADAH BITIAH CHEMBO 2016131946

Induced abortion is often an indication of unintended pregnancy which when conducted in an

 To determine whether socio-economic characteristics of women affect contraceptive use

JUSTIFICATION FOR THE USE OF STATA

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