Ethnic Disparities in Contraceptive Use and Its Impact on Family Planning Program in Nepal

Objective: regardless of three decades of implementation of family planning program in nepal, need offamily planning services is largely unmet. systematic studies, evaluating the impact of family program onseveral ethnic groups of nepal has not been carried out in large scale. this study sheds light on theinvestigation of, whether the use of contraceptives varies among different ethnic groups in nepal andwhat are the predictors of contraceptive variance in ethnic groups in nepal.materials and methods: the study is based on data collected from nepal demographic health survey(ndhs) 2006. multilevel logistic regression analyses of 10793 married women of reproductive agenested within 264 clusters from the surveys were considered as the sample size. individual, household,and program variables were set and a multilevel logistic regression model was fitted to analyze thevariables, using gllamm command in stata–9.results: multilevel logistic regression analysis indicated that muslims, dalits and terai madheshi womenwere significantly less likely to use modern contraceptives compared to the brahmins and chhetries(higher castes). women who were exposed to family planning information in radio were more likely touse modern contraceptives than women not exposed to radio information (or=1.22, p> 0.01). an odd ofusing contraceptives by newar was (or 1.09, p>0.05), the highest among all ethnic groups. exposure ofwomen to family planning messages through health facilities, family planning workers, and means ofcommunication, increased the odds of using modern contraceptives. however, impact of the familyplanning information on contraceptive use varied among ethnicity.conclusion: special attention need to be paid, in particular to the ethnicity, while formulating familyplanning policies in nepal, for better success rate of family planning intervention programs.