Knowledge and practice of family planning among pregnant tribal women in Southern India: an observational study

Kiranmayee Muralidhar; Holly Nishimura; Kate Coursey; Karl Krupp; Poornima Jaykrishna; Vijaya Srinivas; Purnima Madhivanan

doi:10.1186/s40834-023-00259-3

Knowledge and practice of family planning among pregnant tribal women in Southern India: an observational study

Contracept Reprod Med. 2024 Jan 12;9(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s40834-023-00259-3.

Authors

Kiranmayee Muralidhar^#^{1

2}, Holly Nishimura^#³, Kate Coursey⁴, Karl Krupp^{5

6}, Poornima Jaykrishna⁵, Vijaya Srinivas⁵, Purnima Madhivanan^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India. kiranmayee.phrii@gmail.com.
² JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysore, Karnataka, India. kiranmayee.phrii@gmail.com.
³ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
⁶ Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, P.O. Box 245209, Tucson, Arizona, 85724-5209, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: There are over 700 Scheduled Tribes (ST) living in 30 Indian states. As with other indigenous groups across the world, Indian ST have some of the poorest infant and child health outcomes of any communities in India. A child born to an ST family is 19% more likely to die in the first month of life and has a 45 percent risk of dying in their first year compared with other Indian populations. Research suggests that early conception, high fertility, and low use of family planning methods are large contributors to these disparities.

Methods: A cross sectional survey in Kannada was conducted among 303 pregnant tribal women in Mysore, India after obtaining informed consent. Univariate and multivariable analyses were carried out to determine the demographic and psychosocial factors associated with knowledge of contraceptive methods using Stata 14.0.

Results: There was widespread knowledge about female sterilization, while only 39.3% of women reported hearing about one or more forms of temporary contraception, and 36.3% knew where to get them. The largest proportion of women had heard about copper-T (33.0%), followed by oral contraceptive pills (23.8%), condoms (11.9%), and injectables (4.6%). Only 2.7% of women reported ever using any form of temporary contraception. Results from the multivariable logistic regression indicated that knowledge of at least one form of temporary contraception was linked to higher age (adjusted odds ratio[AOR]: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.17), greater number of years of marriage (AOR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.85, 0.96), and last birth in a government facility (AOR: 3.67; 95% CI: 1.99, 6.82).

Conclusions: The study revealed poor knowledge and utilization of temporary contraceptive methods among a tribal population in rural Mysore, India. Interventions aiming to increase knowledge of contraceptive options are important for birth spacing in this population and should target younger women and those without contact with government health facilities.

Keywords: Contraception; Family planning; Health literacy; Reproductive health; Tribal health; Women’s health.

Abstract

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