Women Empowerment And Modern Contraceptive Use Among Married Women In Ibadan, Oyo State

Abstract

Nigeria is a male dominant society where most of the household decisions including those related to their female partner’s health are taken by men. We examined the relationship between women empowerment and Modern Contraceptives (MC) use in Ibadan, Nigeria where such studies is yet to be documented. Cross-sectional survey design involving both qualitative and quantitative was used to examine 597 women from two selected LGAs in Ibadan. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and logistic regression models (alpha=0.05). Mean age of the women was 33.0±6.7 years, 44.4% had secondary education, 32.2.0% was highly empowered and 69.5% used MC. Injectables (35.1%) were the commonest MC method currently used. There was an increase in use of MC as the level of empowerment increased, however the level of education was found to be strongly related to MC even after controlling for other factors. Empowering women through education will promote the use of MC in Nigeria