Demand for Contraception Among Adolescents in Kenya

Abstract

The government's efforts in the provision of family planning services have been successful in lowering the countries fertility rate, however adolescents have generally been sidelined as a special category group. This study has examined the determinants of contraceptive demand using data from KDHS (2003) by employing binary and multinomial logit models. Individual and provider characteristics display the expected signs with age, gender, educational attainment, socioeconomic status and frequency of listening to the radio positively influencing the use of contraceptives while marital status and distance having a negative influence. Choice of public facilities as sources of contraceptives is influenced by individual's gender, marital status, fertility and access to information while private is only influenced by gender. The education level of individuals has a negative influence on the choice of pharmacy as a source but females use the facility more than males. The variables used could however not explain why individuals use traditional methods (self-care) of family planning.