Abstract

Even though family planning programs are now more widely available in all sections of society, adoption of family planning methods is still heavily influenced by prevailing characteristics such as age at marriage, education, economic status, religion, and number of living children. Objectives: 1. To study the sociodemographic characteristics of reproductive age women (15–49 years). 2. To study the family planning practices of these women. 3. To find out the association between sociodemographic variants and adoption of family planning practices. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Parla, the rural field practice area of Kurnool Medical College. A house-to-house survey was conducted and in each house, married females of reproductive age group were interviewed. 190 females were interviewed with a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. The association between the variables was assessed by using χ 2-test. Results: The majority of the women (95.3%) were aware of contraceptive methods.The majority (81.1%) were using contraceptives. The acceptance rate of contraceptives was higher among women aged 25-34 years, Hindus, and the high literacy status of women, while the nonacceptance rate of contraceptives was found much higher among women who had a low socioeconomic status and < 2 children. Most of the women gave reasons for unwillingness to use contraception as wanting more children (33.3%), wanting a male children (30.6%) ,and incon¬venience (22.2%). Major sources of information about family planning were health workers (62.4%), television (46.9%), and doctors (34.3%). Conclusion: To improve the family planning program, health professionals must constantly communicate with the eligible couple. Every attempt should be made to improve female literacy, including stepping up behavior change communication (BCC) activities in both health and non-health departments.

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