ted having received PC in comparison to 68.1% of women who lived in the rural region.
DHS wealth index quintile distribution (poorest, poorer, middle, richer, richest) was significantly associated with PC status (χ2 = 494.85, p = <.001). As we expected, there was perfect linear trend in the proportion of ‘received PC’ group among the increasing quintiles of wealth index. The ‘Richest’ group, had the highest proportion (93.5%) of women who reported received PC, followed by the ‘Richer’ group (84.9%) of women who reported having received PC. The percentage of women who reported having received PC in the first three quintiles (Poorest, Poorer, Middle) was 50.2%, 68.9% and 76.3% respectively.
Religion (Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Kirat, Christian or other) was also found to be associated with PC status (χ2 = 30.56, p = <.001). Christian women were most likely to seek PC (81.1%) whereas Buddhist women were less likely to have received PC (59%). Similarly, survival status of last child was significantly associated with the status of PC among women (χ2 =16.18, p = 0.<.001). Interestingly, the percentage of women having received PC was greater among those who had the last child alive (88%) than those whose last child were dead (72.8%). Also, the type of native language spoken by the women was significantly associated with their PC status (χ2 =145.02, p = 0.<.001). In contrast to our hypothesis, women speaking Maithili were more likely to have received PC (85.8%) than women speaking Nepali, national language (76.7%).
Three groups of variables related to Knowledge, Attitude and Practice were analyzed to investigate whether or not these variables have any association with Nepalese women receiving PC. The first group included variables that measured knowledge status of women, including heard about family planning (through radio, TV or newspaper) and whether or not women know where to get abortion. Opinion of women in terms of desire for more children and whether or not wanted last child were included in the ‘attitude’ group. Smoking habit (including cigarettes, pipe, snuff, chewing tobacco or other), use of cesarean section, preparation for delivery (including saved money, arranged transportation, found blood donor, contacted health worker, bought safe delivery kit, prepared food and clothes), use of special safe delivery kit, total pregnancies and use of iron/folic acid tablet were included in the ‘practice’ cluster.
Within ‘knowledge’ variables, women who had heard about family planning was significantly associated with PC status (χ2 = 117.67, p = <.001). As expected, 76.9% of women who said that they have heard about family planning from radio, TV or newspaper received PC, in comparison to 60.1% in women who said that they have not heard about family planning from none of the sources. Similarly, whether or not the women had knowledge about where to get an abortion was strongly associated with PC status (χ2 = 185.68, p = <.001). 80.2% of women who were aware of place to have abortion have received PC compared to 64.1% of women who did not know about the place to get an abortion. Furthermore, the proportion of women who reported having received PC was the lowest (57%) when the respondents had no knowledge of where to get an abortion.
In terms of ‘attitude’, both women’s desire for more children (χ2 = 74,45, p = <.001), and women wanting the last child (χ2 = 105.48, p = <.001) were significantly associated with PC utilization. Surprisingly, the proportion of women who reported having received PC was higher (83.6%) among women who desired more children after more than two years than those who wanted within two years (67%). The proportion of women who have received PC was the lowest (55.6%) among women who wanted more children but were unsure about the timing. Contrary to our expectation, women who wanted their last child ‘later’ (81.3%) had higher proportion to have received PC than women who wanted their last child ‘then’ (74.4%), whereas, the proportion of having received PC among women who did not want last child was 58.9%.
Similarly