Husbands' and Wives' Reports of Contraceptive Use

Abstract

Many Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in the past decade have queried husbands and wives about their current contraceptive use. In this study, couples' concurrence on use and method used is compared by means of data from 23 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Husbands report higher levels of use than do their wives in every country studied, with ranges from 2 percent higher (Brazil) to 150 percent higher (Mali). Many of the discrepancies are the result of husbands' sole reports of periodic abstinence and condom use. Couples with polygynous husbands show less concurrence than do monogamous couples, although the majority of these differences could result from a data-collection problem. Monogamous couples in which one or both spouses reported having extramarital sex partners show less concurrence than do monogamous couples reporting no other partners. Problems of validity of both husbands' and wives' reports are discerned, and in the few instances where a direct comparison is possible, wives' reports are shown to have greater validity. Logistic regression results show that spousal discussion about family planning and greater female education are consistent predictors of concurrence.

Husband-Wife Agreement, Power Relations and Contraceptive Use in Turkey

“…However, its direction differs from the more common pattern, in which husbands report higher levels of use than do their wives because they report more use of condoms or periodic abstinence. 7,10 Compared with their wives, Turkish husbands underreport use of condoms and withdrawal (though wives report less pill use and more IUD use than do their husbands). Studies from many countries indicate that use of withdrawal is frequently underreported.…”

“…Although high concurrence would be expected because of daily partner contact and common living conditions, cross-national studies of couple concurrence on contraceptive method use show frequent discrepancies between husbands' and wives' reports. [4][5][6][7][8] In one study, the median level of partners' concordance on a range of reproductive measures in DHS countries was 76%. 6 Discrepant responses may result from measurement error, social desirability biases, wives' covert use of contraceptives, and disagreement and miscommunication over spousal fertility and family planning preferences.…”

“…6 Discrepant responses may result from measurement error, social desirability biases, wives' covert use of contraceptives, and disagreement and miscommunication over spousal fertility and family planning preferences. [7][8][9][10] Moreover, decisions about contraceptive use and childbearing may be compounded by unequal power relations, especially in more patriarchal societies. 11,12 Until recently, researchers largely ignored the mismatches between the responses of husbands and wives and invariably assumed women's responses to be more accurate.…”

“…However, differences in age, education levels and place of residence between respondents and nonrespondents were not statistically significant, 35 and the total number of matched couples is higher than that for most DHS-based, couple-level studies. 7 From the initial sample of 1,971 paired couples, we excluded 65 couples who reported any polygamous unions and 156 couples in which one or both partners had been married more than once. Their exclusion ensured that partners' responses would correspond to the same marital union.…”

Migration, health knowledge and teenage fertility: evidence from Mexico

“…19 The vaccines are tuberculosis (BCG), polio, measles, and DPT. (Becker and Costenbader 2001). Therefore, I prefer to investigate the impact of migration on knowledge of at least one contraceptive method-it is necessary to have knowledge about at least one contraceptive method to prevent pregnancy-and infer from that the possible impact on its use: knowledge of contraceptive methods and their use are indeed positively correlated.…”