INTRODUCTION:

Contraceptive use varies across the world, both in terms of usage and the types of methods practiced. As per the reports of United Nations-Population Division (2015), 64 percent of married women of reproductive age worldwide were using some form of contraception and 12 percent of married women were estimated to have an unmet need for family planning; that is, they wanted to stop or delay childbearing but were not using any method of contraception. The usage was as high as 84 percent in United Kingdom in comparison to only 1.2 percent in Somalia.

In Asia, the highest levels of contraceptive use are found mainly in the Eastern and South Eastern regions. The highest contraceptive prevalence was 83 percent in China in 2015 and the lowest level of contraceptive prevalence in Asia was 29 percent in Afghanistan¹. The total fertility rate in India was 2.2 and the birth rate was 19.89 per 1000 population in 2014. The contraceptive prevalence in India was found to be 56.3 percent during 2005-2006 (NFHS-3) and it was reduced to 53.5 percent in 2015-2016 (NFHS-4). In Tamil Nadu, the contraceptive prevalence was 53.2 percent and in Coimbatore it was 65.35 percent which includes 66.0 percent in urban and 64.7 percent in rural areas as per NFHS-4 during 2015-2016².

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

Literacy has an important role to enable women to comprehend their overall development. It is well understood that higher level of education lead to a greater awareness and bring about a prosperous change in the socio-economic status of any society³. Women’s education has a significant role in family planning behaviour. It not only helps in the development of the half of human resources, but also in improving the quality of life at home and outside. Moreover educated women can also help in reduction of fertility and growth of population⁴. Female education in particular is known to affect a host of social, economic and demographic variables such as age at marriage, employment status and fertility and is positively related to the use of contraceptives. Even small improvements in educational attainment could result in substantially greater contraceptive use.

It is believed that education not only provides opportunities for personal advancement and awareness of social mobility but it also provides a new outlook, freedom from tradition, the willingness to analyse institutions, values and patterns of behaviour and the growth of rationalism. In other words, education is the most dynamic and influential tool for inducing positive attitude among couples towards the methods and measures of family planning. Thus, with the above perspectives the present study is undertaken to examine the impact of women’s education on contraceptive practice among married women residing in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, India.

Statement of the problem:

A study to assess the impact of women’s education on contraceptive practice among married women in Coimbatore District.

Objectives of the study:

1. To describe the socio-economic and obstetric profile of the sample women taken for the study.

2. To analyze the practice of contraceptives among married women.

3. To find out the association between educational level of sample women and contraceptive practice.

Operational definition:

Education refers to the level of highest completed qualification reported by the sample women.

Contraceptive practice refers to the practice of temporary or permanent methods of contraception by the married women or their spouse.

Married women refer to married women in the age group of 15-35 years having atleast one child and residing in the study area.

METHODOLOGY:

Research approach:

To accomplish the objectives of the study, quantitative research approach was used.

Research design:

Descriptive design was adopted in the study.

Setting:

Coimbatore District

Population:

Married women residing in Coimbatore District

Sample and sample size:

The study is confined to married women in the age group of 15-35 years having atleast one child and residing in the study area. The sample size was 622.

Sampling technique:

Multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted to select the samples.

Tool for data collection:

A questionnaire was prepared by the researcher for the collection of primary data.

Section I

Elicits information on the socio-economic and obstetric profile of the married women.

Section II

Identifies the various contraceptive methods used by the married women or their husband.

Major Findings:

I. Socio-economic and Obstetric Profile:

· Majority (63%) of the respondents were in the age group of 15 to 24 years.

· Maximum number of respondents were Hindus (76.9 %).

· All the respondents were literate and 70.7% of them have studied upto high school.

· Majority (69.1%) of the respondents were house wives.

· The highest percentage (79.7%) belonged to nuclear family.

· More than half (57.2%) of the respondents have married before the age of 21.

· 61.7% of the respondents had normal vaginal delivery.

· The health care personnel are the major source of information about contraceptive methods to 40.2% of respondents.

II. Contraceptive Practice:

Pie diagram shows that 42.4% of the respondents have used contraceptives at the time of study. Despite the fact that family planning services are available at free of cost in the country, 57.6% of women did not use any kind of contraception.

III. Association between educational level of sample women and contraceptive practice.:

It is identified from table 1 that 174 respondents with school level education and 86 graduates have accepted contraception.

Table 1: Educational Level and Contraceptive Practice

Sl. No.	Educational Level	Practice of Contraceptive Methods		Total
Sl. No.	Educational Level	Adopted	Not Adopted	Total
1.	School education	174	266	440
2.	Diploma	4	16	20
3.	Under graduate	66	58	124
4.	Post graduate	20	18	38
Total		264	358	622

Chi-square test has been applied to find whether there is an association between educational level of the respondents and contraceptive practice and the result is presented as follows:

Pearson Chi-square	𝒙^𝟐 Value	Df	Significance
Pearson Chi-square	13.152	3	.004*
*Significant at 0.05 % level

The Chi-square value shows that the calculated value of educational level of the respondents is less than the actual value (p<0.05). Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. It is concluded that the educational level is found to be significantly associated with contraceptive practice.

CONCLUSION:

The education of women stands out as a significant factor in determining fertility. It has been found to increase women's levels of autonomy in decision-making, in acquiring knowledge, in gaining access to economic resources, and in interacting with a wider social circle. It is through this autonomy that education exerts an impact on fertility. Education is also considered as the most dynamic and influential tool for inducing positive attitude among couples towards the methods and measures of family planning. With increase in education, women may begin to have other commitments and consequently prefer a small family. Female literacy can not only improve the level of knowledge but also enhance the decision making power regarding contraceptive use. It is for this reason that education is a basic human right, and it is the duty of our leadership to ensure education for all.

REFERENCES:

1. Trends in Contraceptive Use Worldwide, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, United Nations, New York, 2015.

2. India Fact Sheet, National Family Health Survey NFHS-4, International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, India, 2015-2016.

3. Koch E, Calhoun B, Aracena P, “Women’s Education Level, Contraceptive Use and Maternal Mortality Estimates”, Public Health, 128(4), Apr.2014; 384-387.

4. Chaurasia, A. R, “Contraceptive Use in India: A Data Mining Approach”, International Journal of Population Research, 2014, pp. 1-11.

Received on 24.07.2019 Modified on 08.08.2019

Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2019; 9(4):539-541.

DOI: 10.5958/2349-2996.2019.00115.0