Assessment of Preference and Its Determinant Factors to Ward Modern Contraceptive Methods among Women of Reproductive Age Group in Shire Indaselassie Town, Northern Ethiopia, 2011

Background. Women’s preferences for various contraceptive methods attribute vary according to the type of relations and other aspects of their life. The discrepancy between fertility preferences and contraceptive practice is regarded as an indicator of unmet demand for family planning. Objective. To assess modern contraceptive methods preference and its determinant factors among women of reproductive age group in Shire Indaselassie town, Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia. Method. A community based cross-sectional study design was employed on 367 sampled women. Stratified sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Then, data was collected using structured questionnaire. Result. In this study, the most commonly preferred modern contraceptive method was injectable contraceptive 202 (55%), the second 61 (16.6%) was oral contraceptives, and the third 47 (12.8%) was Norplant. Condom 31 (8.4%), IUD 14 (3.8%), female sterilization 7 (1.9%), and others were less commonly preferred methods. Some of the reasons for preference were effectiveness of the method, reversibility, fewer side effects, convenience, long duration of use, and no need to remember daily. Conclusion. This study clearly described that women preferences of modern contraceptive methods increased after they had higher number of children and less desire to limit family size. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Worldwide contraceptive prevalence is estimated to be 58% in 1993. In the more developed countries, regional prevalence variations fall within a relatively narrow range, from 69% in Eastern and Southern Europe to 78% in northern Europe. Among the less developed countries, contraceptive prevalence is the lowest in Africa. Use of contraception among married women in less developed countries varies from a low 8% in Western Africa to a high 83% in Eastern Asia. Modern methods account for the majority of currently global contraceptive practice; almost it covers 9 out of every 10 contraceptive users. Contraceptive prevalence at the global level will need to be at least 66%–75% in the more developed regions and 67% in the less developed regions to attain the projected decline in fertility by the year 2025. Those estimates imply a nearly 60 percent increase in the number of contraceptive users among married women. The largest proportional increase will be in Africa where projections call for the number of users to more than double up to 2005 and to continue to increase rapidly. Ethiopia is one of the Sub-Saharan countries with alarming population growth rate of 2.7% and the total fertility