Childbearing and the Use of Contraceptive Methods Among Married Adolescents in Bangladesh

Objectives: To investigate the socioeconomic determinants of childbearing and contraceptive use among married adolescents in Bangladesh.

Methods: The study used the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007 data. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were used to examine the association between the socioeconomic factors and childbearing and contraceptive use among married female adolescents.

Results: Overall, 69% of the married adolescents initiated childbearing and 25% of the most recent pregnancies were unintended. The current contraceptive prevalence rate was 42%. The multivariate logistic regression yielded a significantly increased risk of childbearing among adolescents with no formal education, those who were married-off before age 16, the poor and those who had ever used any contraceptive method. Inter-spousal communication on family planning (FP) appeared as the most single significant determinant of any contraceptive use. Number of living children, working status and visitations by FP workers are also important determinants of contraceptive use among the married female adolescents.

Conclusions: Early childbearing, lower use rate of contraceptive methods and unintended pregnancies are common among married adolescents in Bangladesh. Expanded schooling and reproductive health programmes in Bangladesh should promote increased communication about FP within the couples in order to achieve successful contraception and better reproductive outcomes, particularly among adolescents.