Data triangulation to analyze family planning practice of Iranian married women

Abstract

Introduction: Fulfillment of unmet needs for family planning services and contraceptives could prevent 30% of maternal mortality worldwide. This study was designed to analyze the performance of Iranian married women and recognize their unmet needs for family planning services based on the Precautions Adaptation Process Model (PAPM). To ensure robustness of the study findings data triangulation approach was also applied to collect the study data. Methodology: Married women of reproductive age in the range of 15-49 years old residing in the city of Ajabshir were recruited in this descriptive study. The study target group consisted of 936 women in three categories including those (n=234) who given birth within recent six months (September 2013 to March 2014), the women (n=400) who were regularly using contraceptives for family planning purposes and the third group (n= 302) who were not using any contraceptives within the urban and sub-urban areas of the study location. Quota sampling method was applied to select the study participants from the registered cases of women who have given birth in recent six months in the only general hospital of the study site (Imam Khomeini Hospital) and from the records of the urban and sub-urban health centers in the region. To collect the study data the Persian translated version of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) and a semi-structured questionnairewhich was designed consistent with the PAPM’s stages were used to recognize unmet needs for family planning services through face to face interviews at the study participants’ homes. Findings: Unmet needs for family planning services were evident amongst 11.1% of the women who had delivered their baby recently, 43.37% of the women who were not using one of the family planning methods and 6% of those who already were using one of the family planning methods. Findings of the conducted systematic review of scientific literature also revealed that empirical research evidence about the unmet needs for family planning services is scarce in Iran. Considerable heterogeneity was also observed in the applied methodology and findings of the limited studies exist. The Persian version of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) was validated for the first time to be used for Iranian women of reproductive age. Conclusion: The scale of identified unmet‌ needs for family planning services among Iranian women of reproductive age requires further scrutiny. While findings of this study are not generalizable to the whole population of women of reproductive age in Iran due to the inherent limitation in the applied sampling method but could give an overview about the national health care system’s success rate in fulfilling needs for reliable family planning services across the country. It should be noted that decision to use family planning methods is highly dependent on socio-culturalcircumstances in addition to the individual factors. Performing cross-cultural future studies are highly recommended to shed light on precipitating factors that might change couples’ preferences and affect health systems’ achievements.