Predictors of Contraceptive Practice for Low-Income Women in Cali, Colombia

Abstract

An attempt has been made to determine which of several social, demographic and economic variables best account for the variance in contraceptive use in a low-income, urban Colombian population. The results indicated that of the independent variables included, occurrence or non-occurrence of intercourse in the past month, education, employment status, marital status and age were the best predictors, in that order. Altogether these factors accounted for 17% of the variance in contraceptive use and 87% of the variance within the model. The remaining variables had relatively little predictive utility; and this was particularly true for interspousal communication, race and religious commitment.

Correlates of contraceptive use among urban poor in Colombia

“…Similarly, FP use tends to increase with the number of children (CELADE & CFSC, 1972), though some have reported that this occurs only to a certain point after which it decreases (Sear, 1975;Westinghouse Health Systems et al 1978).…”

“…For example, a series of contraceptive prevalence surveys in the late 1970s indicates that the tendency to use contraceptives increases with education (Westinghouse Health Systems et al, 1978, for Mexico;APROFAM, 1980, for Guatemala;Asociacion Demografica Salvadorena, 1980, for El Salvador;Westinghouse Health Systems et al, 1979, for Colombia;Morris et ah, 1978, for Paraguay;Nakamura et ah, 1979, for the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil). Other indicators of socioeconomic status have been reported as correlates of FP use, including income (Bailey, Measham & Umana 1976) and employment status (Sear, 1975;APROFAM, 1980;Asociacion Demografica Salvadorena, 1980). However, these relationships are less consistent than for education.…”

“…The present findings also conform to much of the existing literature in regard to demographic variables: the peak use of contraceptives is among women aged 25-34 (or 39 in some cases) as found in the surveys in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Sao Paulo. Similarly, FP use tends to increase with the number of children (CELADE & CFSC, 1972), though some have reported that this occurs only to a certain point after which it decreases (Sear, 1975;Westinghouse Health Systems et al 1978).…”

“…To determine the relative importance of these factors on contraceptive use and to take into account their interrelationships, multiple regression was applied. Simple multiple regression, such as Sear (1975) used in a similar study of correlates of contraceptive use in Cali, Colombia, presents a methodological difficulty; it requires the dependent variable to be continuous whereas contraceptive use is a dichotomous variable. Instead, the technique of multiple stepwise logistic regression was used.…”

“…(1) What is the relative importance of these different factors in relation to FP use? Often only two-variable relationships are reported rather than multi-variate analyses (although CELADE &CFSC, 1972, andSear, 1975 are notable exceptions). (2) To what extent does contact with FP programmes affect contraceptive use, and how important is this in relation to other socioeconomic, demographic and attitudinal factors?…”