Abstract

Background: Despite decades of formulating and implementing the National Family Welfare Programme, India, has still not attained the desired level of contraception usage.
Objective: The present study aimed to assess the contraception awareness, practices and its determinants among rural eligible couples in Jammu district. Material and Methods: The present cross-sectional and observational study was conducted among 270 eligible couples in three villages of Kot Bhalwal block which were selected randomly.
Results: Three-fifth of the study population were young adults in 20-29 years age group residing in nuclear families with only <10% of them married before <18 years of age. Contraception prevalence rate was 71.11%. 39% of the respondents were using permanent methods. Among the various correlates, literacy status of wife and type of family were found to significantly affect the contraceptive usage (P < 0.05). Among other variables, no significant association was found between age of marriage, number of children, socioeconomic status and contraceptive usage (P > 0.05). Conclusion: There was good awareness regarding contraception, but the need is to promote more spacing methods among the eligible couples besides sterilization which still remains the most widely used method. The contraceptive prevalence rate was found to be 71.11%.