Prevalence and influencing factors of contraceptive usage among employed and unemployed women in Senegal: evidence from Senegal DHS 2019 data

Contraception is a birth control system used to prevent unwanted pregnancies. For policy purposes in Senegal, it is important to investigate the variables that affect contraceptive prevalence as contraceptive usage reduces fertility rates and strengthens the development of a country. The purpose of this study was to classify the prevalence and influence factors of contraceptive use among employed and unemployed women of Senegal. To perform this analysis, Senegal's continuous DHS 2019 data were used. In this study, we used descriptive statistics to investigate the prevalence of current contraceptive use. Chi-square tests were used to check the association between current contraception use and socio-demographic characteristics. Finally, we used binary logistic regression to identify the influencing factors of contraceptive usage. The outcome of this study revealed that contraceptive usage was lower among unemployed women (21.1%) than employed women (29.3%). Women‘s age, educational level, region, desire for more children, fieldworkers' visitation, residing with husband/partner status, breastfeeding practice, and abstaining status were found to the common socio-demographic factors that significantly influence the current contraceptive usage among both working and unemployed female of Senegal. The highest prevalence of contraceptive usage was found among working women aged 35-44 years (33.5%), who were highly educated men (43.2%) and women (37.9%), living in urban areas in Saint-Louis (47.1%), non- Muslim (33.9%), richest (35.2%) by wealth and those who have 11-14 family members (31.4%), married at 18-20 years (32.5%), having 5 to 6 children (36.7%), gave birth more than 4 children (35%), did not desire for more children (39%), visited by the fieldworker (53.7%), heard family planning in TV (35.2%) and newspaper or magazine (36.5%), currently residing with husband (34%) rather than not abstaining (29.6%) and not amenorrheic (30.8%). Among unemployed women, the prevalence of current use of contraceptives was also high for the same categories of most of the variables, excluding wealth index, number of household members, and age at first cohabitation. It was highly pervasive among unemployed women, who were richer (29.4%), have 6-10 household members (21.7%), and were married at 21-23 years (24.4%). The use of contraception would be increased by providing job opportunities for Senegalese women. To improve the level of contraceptive prevalence among women, these sociodemographic factors must be taken into account.

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