Husbands' and Wives' Reports of Contraceptive Use

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 lev...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Studies in family planning 2001-06, Vol.32 (2), p.111-129
Main Authors:	Becker, Stan, Costenbader, Elizabeth
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Africa Asia Birth Control Communication Condoms Contraception Contraception Behavior - psychology Contraception Behavior - statistics & numerical data Contraceptives Crosscultural Differences Differences Extramarital Relations Family planning Female Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Humans Husband and wife Husband-wife relations Husbands International Latin America Logistic Models Male Men Men - education Men - psychology Middle Aged Oral contraceptives Periodic abstinence Polls & surveys Predictive Value of Tests Regression analysis Sex Differences Sexual behavior Social aspects Social conditions Socioeconomic Factors Spouses Spouses - education Spouses - psychology Spouses - statistics & numerical data Studies Sub Saharan Africa SubSaharan Africa Surveys and Questionnaires Use Validity Wives Women Women - education Women - psychology
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	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.
ISSN:	0039-3665 1728-4465