Household characteristics and unintended pregnancy among ever-married women in Nigeria

Abstract

Unintended pregnancy is a worldwide problem. Unintended or unplanned pregnancy refers to the sum of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies. A woman is assumed to have a mistimed pregnancy if she became pregnant at a time when she did not want to. A woman is assumed to have an unwanted pregnancy if she did not intend to ever become pregnant or if the pregnancy occurred when she wanted to no more children. This study used data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) to identify individual-level and household-level factors associated with unintended pregnancy among ever-married women in Nigeria. Unintended pregnancy was measured using Lightbourne method. Among the factors associated with higher rates of unintended pregnancies were female-headed households, households headed by older adults, family size, and poverty. Women from rich households were 21% less likely to have unintended pregnancies compared to women from poor house-holds. When all variables were controlled for simultaneously, age and sex of household head, house-hold size, and wealth index were significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. Findings suggest that tackling unintended pregnancy may require household-focused interventions.