Contraceptive use doubles in two decades
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
A Z M Anas
Use of contraceptive in Bangladesh has almost doubled in two decades, helped by increased application of modern family planning methods, according to a new survey.
A wide-ranging survey by state population research group NIPORT found that some 60 per cent of the country's around 32 million couples use contraceptives such as condom and birth control pills in 2008, up from 31 per cent in 1989.
It said the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the Muslim world, with essential service delivery rising by one per cent every year since 2006.
"Although the increase is not so significant, it indicates the couples' preference to modern contraception," said Subrata K. Bhadra, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT).
"The figure reminds us of the risk of non-availability of contraceptives. The shortage can lead to higher unwanted births," he added.
The new figure is 4.0 per cent higher than that of the latest Demographic and Health Survey, in 2007, which found the CPR to be 56 per cent, a 2.0 per cent drop from the 2004 survey.
Family planning officials have blamed supply crunch of birth control injectables for the decline in contraception use in 2007, which resulted in an estimated 49,000 additional unplanned births.
The latest figure came as soothing news for policymakers who were worried over the fall in contraception use that could weigh on the population growth and the country's future economic polices and plans.
Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a Washington think tank, has figured Bangladesh's population hit 162 million in mid-July, around 20 million higher than the government figure.
Pill continues to be the single most popular family planning method, with 27 per cent users relying on the oral medication, the NIPORT survey says. But the use has remained almost stagnant since 2006.
"No other country in the world relies so heavily on pill as Bangladesh does," Peter Kim Streatfield, who heads Population Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research (ICDDR,B), said in a recent interview.
The ICDDR.B researcher said that sterilsation --- one of the most successful tools for birth control --- has gone down since the late 1990s, owing mainly to the lack of campaign and motivational work.
Both male and female sterilisation remained insignificant, making less than 1.0 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively of the total method mix.
Experience from other countries suggests that such a rise in the CPR would produce a concurrent decline in fertility, but Mr. Streatfield said subsequent studies have not satisfactorily explained this "paradox".
Since 2004, total fertility rate (TFR) or the number of children born per couple has started waning and reached 2.7 in 2007 after a decade-long flat growth of 3.0.
The survey said injectables use ranks the second, but the use dropped from 11.2 per cent in 2006 to 10 per cent in 2008.
Condom use, however, increased by 1.0 per cent to 4.0 per cent in 2008 compared with 3.0 per cent in 2006.
Mr Bhadra said CPR in the country's eastern part, especially in Sylhet region, still remained lower than that of the western part, which is a concern for policymakers.
Use of contraceptive in Bangladesh has almost doubled in two decades, helped by increased application of modern family planning methods, according to a new survey.
A wide-ranging survey by state population research group NIPORT found that some 60 per cent of the country's around 32 million couples use contraceptives such as condom and birth control pills in 2008, up from 31 per cent in 1989.
It said the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the Muslim world, with essential service delivery rising by one per cent every year since 2006.
"Although the increase is not so significant, it indicates the couples' preference to modern contraception," said Subrata K. Bhadra, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT).
"The figure reminds us of the risk of non-availability of contraceptives. The shortage can lead to higher unwanted births," he added.
The new figure is 4.0 per cent higher than that of the latest Demographic and Health Survey, in 2007, which found the CPR to be 56 per cent, a 2.0 per cent drop from the 2004 survey.
Family planning officials have blamed supply crunch of birth control injectables for the decline in contraception use in 2007, which resulted in an estimated 49,000 additional unplanned births.
The latest figure came as soothing news for policymakers who were worried over the fall in contraception use that could weigh on the population growth and the country's future economic polices and plans.
Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a Washington think tank, has figured Bangladesh's population hit 162 million in mid-July, around 20 million higher than the government figure.
Pill continues to be the single most popular family planning method, with 27 per cent users relying on the oral medication, the NIPORT survey says. But the use has remained almost stagnant since 2006.
"No other country in the world relies so heavily on pill as Bangladesh does," Peter Kim Streatfield, who heads Population Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research (ICDDR,B), said in a recent interview.
The ICDDR.B researcher said that sterilsation --- one of the most successful tools for birth control --- has gone down since the late 1990s, owing mainly to the lack of campaign and motivational work.
Both male and female sterilisation remained insignificant, making less than 1.0 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively of the total method mix.
Experience from other countries suggests that such a rise in the CPR would produce a concurrent decline in fertility, but Mr. Streatfield said subsequent studies have not satisfactorily explained this "paradox".
Since 2004, total fertility rate (TFR) or the number of children born per couple has started waning and reached 2.7 in 2007 after a decade-long flat growth of 3.0.
The survey said injectables use ranks the second, but the use dropped from 11.2 per cent in 2006 to 10 per cent in 2008.
Condom use, however, increased by 1.0 per cent to 4.0 per cent in 2008 compared with 3.0 per cent in 2006.
Mr Bhadra said CPR in the country's eastern part, especially in Sylhet region, still remained lower than that of the western part, which is a concern for policymakers.